FUMBLE – ODA SAGA A REAL ^NOT TOUCHDOWN

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: The cover-up is always worse than the crime, the saying goes. By telling a Parliamentary committee in December that she had no idea how a funding request from a faith-based international development organization got switched from recommended by the bureaucracy to “not” approved, International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda set in motion the chain of events that now has opposition MPs and editorial writers across the country calling for her head, and her Prime Minister and his government under a cloud. There’s nothing wrong with a cabinet minister over-ruling a staff recommendation, but by initially claiming no knowledge of how the paperwork got changed – and then, this week, admitting that it was at her direction all along – she created a communications nightmare. What was at essence a routine bit of business between civil service staff and a minister’s office has now become an issue of integrity for an entire government. The lesson in all of this is that even lower-level decisions and the communication around them can have repercussions that can shake the entire organization if not properly handled at the outset. Think through the potential ramifications your statement/comment may have BEFOREHAND. The best damage control strategy is removing the need to have one in the first place.