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- Title
The Al-Mashat affair: administrative accountability in parliamentary institutions.
- Authors
Sutherland, S. L.
- Abstract
The article approaches the Canadian federal government's handling of the Al-Mashat affair in May and June of 1991 as a case study in direct administrative accountability. The author begins with a discussion of the main lines of political control tinder responsible government, writing as a partisan for the traditional doctrines of collective and individual ministerial responsibility. A number of questions emerging from this discussion are then posed as probes into the case: was an important minister effectively shielded; was blame ever allocated in a convincing way; were the criteria of natural justice respected in both internal actions and in the House of Commons' Standing Committee on External Affairs and International Trade; were democratic controls over political and administrative action respected? It is the author's conclusion that the government's strategy to deflect its accountability onto a senior career official and a political chief of staff failed on all these counts and several more, as well. Perhaps the most important of these is the politicization of officials. Another disturbing element that the case reveals is a willingness to arrogate new powers and liberties to the executive.
- Subjects
CANADA; CANADIAN politics &; government; ADMINISTRATIVE law; GOVERNMENT liability; ADMINISTRATIVE responsibility; CIVIL service; DECENTRALIZATION in government; MINISTERIAL responsibility; REPRESENTATIVE government
- Publication
Canadian Public Administration, 1991, Vol 34, Issue 4, p573
- ISSN
0008-4840
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1754-7121.1991.tb01487.x