Blank spaces : Accountability and oversight gap in Saskatchewan's contract roadbuilding system

For according to the boilerplate text — which the example, several contracts used the phrase “work ministry can require the contractor to provide; to include all necessary equipment, materials, it is repaid once the project is completed and and labour to do highway, ditch and/or culvert accepted by the ministry.6 As with the option maint enance work” in a specific area. [...] If the experts who negotiate in advance changes to the scope of Blank Spaces, June 2015 CCPA – Saskatchewan Office • 9 work and corresponding payment) the value of that safeguard is considerably weakened in the face of contracts with open-ended terms of work. [...] The ministry’s total payroll, the owned goods and equipment are matters size of its staff, and the wages earned by all of public record, the costs involved in hiring employees earning over $50,000 are all pub- contractors to perform work on the ministry’s lished yearly in the ministry’s annual report behalf are not made public. [...] While the provincial government is by the office of the Saskatchewan Information responsible to the public and required to make and Privacy Commissioner, and necessitated the public most details of its spending and activities, support of a lawyer. [...] The contracting-out, a shortage of government- ministry was unable to provide any answers as to held information hampers the ministry’s ability how late the contracts were, and could provide to make effective decisions and policies in only general theories, such as poor weather and the first place.