All the Prime Minister's Men

Sponsorship scandal threatens to reach highest levels, senior Liberal says

OTTAWA (CP) - The hunt for culpable parties in the federal sponsorship scandal will extend to the uppermost reaches of the public service, says a highly placed Liberal official. It is the latest - and perhaps strongest - sign that the trail of the sponsorship fiasco, which has already shaken the new administration of Paul Martin, could ultimately lead to officials who worked in the Privy Council Office. It is "widely expected" within Martin's government that officials who served in the PCO, the senior bureaucracy that serves the prime minister, helped set the stage for the abuses - from rule-bending to possible fraud - that flowed from the sponsorship program, said the Liberal source, who requested anonymity. "I think it goes into PCO."