Liberals To Blame, Opposition Says Should Have Ended 'Horror Show' Opposition parties raked over the Liberals yesterday for failing to put a stop to the "horror show" at the privacy commissioner's office and called for whistle-blower protection.

MPs also demanded an end to cabinet appointments as Auditor General Sheila Fraser released a damning report on expenses billed by former privacy commissioner George Radwanski and his inner circle.

"There seems to be a total disregard for every rule in the book," said Canadian Alliance MP John Williams. "It was a horror show over in that department ... I began to wonder if a banana republic was run better than the government of Canada."

Williams called for the creation of an enforcement arm at Treasury Board to uphold ethics and spending rules, and urged the federal government to go after public servants who allegedly overbilled taxpayers.

'HAS TO BE CONSEQUENCES'

"There has to be consequences," he said.

Treasury Board President Lucienne Robillard, who's responsible for enforcing spending rules, said she'll work with a Commons committee to figure out who should oversee spending.

"We have to find a way, not only for the process of their funding, but for the accountability regime and the oversight of their resources," Robillard said, adding she's "very concerned and distressed" by Fraser's report.

Canadian Alliance MP Paul Forseth said his Commons committee, which first revealed Radwanski's bloated expenses, will scrutinize spending from other senior public servants appointed by the Liberal cabinet.

Forseth said the committee will also comb through Parliamentary law to determine whether to charge Radwanski and his staff with contempt.

"It is in the conceivable that Radwanski is looking at some jail," Forseth said.

NDP MP Pat Martin said he was horrified by Radwanski's "reign of terror" and questioned how the Liberal government overlooked his past tax problems and appointed him.

"The reign of terror, the bullying is an absolutely loathsome way to treat people," Martin said. "If he treated people that way where I come from, he'd have a fat lip."