Auditor General Sheila Fraser will investigate a half-million dollar tax break granted to George Radwanski just before he was appointed privacy commissioner, a Commons committee member said Wednesday.

Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Auditor General Sheila Fraser will investigate a half-million dollar tax break granted to George Radwanski just before he was appointed privacy commissioner, a Commons committee member said Wednesday.

Liberal MP Paul Szabo said the matter is beyond the scope of a 40-page report plus appendices which was approved in principle late Wednesday by the government operations committee probing Radwanski's office.

Instead, the committee has determined that Fraser will probe the issue and include her findings in her report to Parliament, due at the end of September, Szabo said.

"This is clearly an issue of significant interest to a number of parties,'' he said. "Her report will certainly be addressing it and we will be taking steps to ensure it is addressed.''

He added the committee's final report, which won't be tabled with the Commons clerk until Friday, identifies several areas requiring further scrutiny by Parliament.

Those include the need for stronger whistle-blower protection, the need to carefully scrutinize the appointment process and spending by officers of Parliament, and how officers of Parliament are removed. It addresses whether witness testimony was deliberately misleading, and asks how committees should deal with witnesses who testified while under duress.

The report also details how MPs came to their finding of non-confidence in the privacy commissioner last week.

But Alliance MP Paul Forseth said he would still call on Customs and Revenue Canada to determine whether Radwanski misled officials by not telling them about his impending $210,000-a-year appointment.

In an interview Wednesday night, he questioned whether Fraser could broaden her probe to include the Revenue Department.

Forseth said if Radwanski failed to tell the revenue department at that time that he already had the job and what his salary was, "it undermines and invalidates'' the tax-forgiveness deal.

Court documents show Radwanski was appointed interim commissioner in July 2000, one day after the department forgave him more than $500,000 in tax debt. His name had begun to circulate as a possible appointee as early as February of that year; he was appointed to a seven-year term later that year.

Radwanski resigned in disgrace this week, but he got an $80,000 severance package from the Privy Council office before he stepped down. He claimed that he was the victim of a smear campaign.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien refused to comment during a media availability Wednesday.

Officials in his office have said they were unaware of the tax deal when they made the appointment. Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan has said there was no political interference.

Derik Hodgson, a Caplan spokesman, said Wednesday the minister is still looking into the deal. Revenue Canada is only authorized to give information involving Criminal Code breaches to officials vetting a parliamentary appointment, Hodgson said. It could not give out personal information about a tax deal.

NDP MP Pat Martin said Hodgson's explanation won't wash and that he has written to Caplan demanding she revisit the deal.

"We're going to do everything in our power to make sure Radwanski repays this money,'' said Martin, who was in Manitoba and did not attend Wednesday's meeting.

"We need the maximum integrity in this office not the lowest denominator of disclosure.''

"So if the PMO didn't ask, they were negligent. If they did ask and weren't told, then Revenue Canada was negligent.''

Forseth called on senior officials in Caplan's department to come forward if they have any evidence.

"Was there political interference or not? Because the average person just looking at that says it just seems a little too tight or neat of a package.''

The former Chretien adviser who got an $80,000 severance package from Privy Council Office before stepping down, said in his resignation announcement that he was the victim of a smear campaign.