Independent, external Liberals

Perhaps feeling that the commissioning, to great fanfare, of an independent audit of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party of Canada had not been sufficiently persuasive of its newfound integrity � something about the auditors being a firm of well-connected Liberal contributors � the Liberal Party of Canada has now called for an independent forensic audit of all donations to the national party. The independent, outside auditors in this case: PricewaterhouseCoopers, auditors of record for the Liberal Party of Canada and, as it turns out, one of its largest contributors. The tally, culled from Elections Canada figures:

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Contribution, 2002: $32,105 Contribution, 2001: $14,507 Contribution, 2000: $58,518 Contribution, 1999: $26,938 Contribution, 1998: $15,980

Rank among all contributors: 16 Rank among all contributors: 18

Pre-merger: Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand

Contributions, 1997: $ 71,928 Contributions, 1996: $ 67,589 Contributions, 1995: $ 28,445 Contributions, 1994: $ 58,946 Contributions, 1993: $146,525

Rank: 16 (combined) / 30 (C&L) Rank: 1 (combined) / 2 (C&L)

All told, that's more than half a million dollars in contributions ($521,481 if you're scoring) over ten years. Indeed, PWC's donations to the cause generally outstripped those of the firms whose contributions it is presumably investigating, and by a wide margin, even in the late-1990s heyday of the sponsorship program. Take Groupaction, for example:

Year 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993

PWC $ 32,105 $ 14,507 $ 58,518 $ 26,938 $ 15,980 $ 71,928 $ 67,589 $ 28,445 $ 58,946 $146,525

Groupaction n/a $ 4,496 $ 6,967 $51,919 $11,997 $48,727 $ 8,701 $ 7,537 $ 4,399 $ 455

In sum, to conduct an external, independent audit of contributions to the Liberal Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada hired one of the biggest contributors to the Liberal Party of Canada. Twice.