Government misspending may be the Viagra of government policy themes in the eyes of business leaders, who inundated COMPAS with volunteered comments about their concerns in that regard.

From nine cases provided to them, respondents in the weekly FP/COMPAS web-survey sponsored by the Financial Post were asked identified the best example of self-interested corruption, an honest mistake, and an easily avoided mistake.

Respondents volunteer dismay about all the examples and are far from a consensus about the best example of an honest mistake. But there is some agreement about best examples of self-interested government corruption (Firearms Registry and unaccountable HRDC grants) and avoidable mistakes (Firearms Registry and cancellation of Sea King helicopter replacements).

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