EFL. A real security risk here.Ontario's drivers' licensing system is rife with crime as rogue employees steal plates and permits and issue phony licencesthe provincial auditor general has found.
In his annual report to the Legislature, Auditor General Jim McCarter slammed the Liberals because some transportation ministry staff and private contractors allowed 56,000 documents and licence plates to be stolen and lost. "We noted instances where staff had criminal records yet no action was taken, and in 25 per cent of the new-hire files we reviewed, the required criminal check had not been done," McCarter said in his 406-page report released yesterday.
McCarter and his auditors also exposed problems at the Ontario Provincial Police, including officers crashing cruisers at an alarming rate, and outlined concerns about an air and land ambulance system that is costing more and delivering less.
Blaming government sloppiness for the problems, McCarter emphasized the offences were grave this year, the first full year of the Liberals' mandate that his office has probed. The most sensational revelations dealt with a drivers' licensing system plagued with what appears to be organized criminal activity despite supposed heightened security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.