Before the recent news about an upcoming report from the Auditor General about Federal Government misuse of funds COMPAS asked business leaders to score different types of executives with respect to how serious a problem misuse of funds is. Overall, business leaders see the misuse of funds as being a public sector problem as opposed to a private sector one. Within the public sector, Federal Commissioners and other Political appointees and their staff are seen as being the most serious problem. In second place were Federal Cabinet Ministers and their staff, with Federal Civil Servant and Provincial Cabinet Ministers and their staff tying for third. Interestingly, business leaders were somewhat less concerned about Provincial Civil Servants.

Business leaders also see a noteworthy difference between executives of publicly traded companies and privately held companies, identifying a more serious problem with misuse of funds for the former and the latter being seen as having the least serious problem among all executives.

These are the key findings from the COMPAS/Financial Post business leader survey conducted under the sponsorship of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce

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