NDP accuses Tories of using committee to whitewash auditor general’s F-35 report

OTTAWA – The NDP accused the Conservatives of using a House of Commons committee to whitewash the auditor general’s scathing indictment of the government’s mammoth F-35 jet fighter procurement.

The NDP levelled the charge in a dissenting opinion to the public accounts committee’s report, which tabled its report in Parliament today.

The committee was responding to the April auditor general’s report that blasted the government for a $10-billion understatement of costs for the F-35 procurement.

The majority Conservative committee recommended a seven-point plan to deal with issues surrounding the cost of the project raised by auditor general Michael Ferguson.

But the NDP says recommendations are inadequate, and that the committee was not allowed to properly shed light on the matter.

Ferguson criticized the Defence Department for failing to come clean on potential problems with buying the F-35.