A second Conservative government agency with staff but no function has been discovered by the tenacious Greg Weston.

Readers will recall Weston’s coverage of the Canadian Employment Insurance Financing Board, which I wrote about here. Now it’s a million-dollar Public Appointments Commission Secretariat—with no Public Appointments Commission to service.

The latter was to be a key piece of Harper’s new accountability: it was established to oversee a merit-based process for appointment to boards and commissions that would supposedly replace the usual political spoils system. Ironically, when Harper couldn’t get his buddy and benefactor Gwyn Morgan appointed as the PAC’s first commissioner, he spitefully chucked the whole idea.

But the Secretariat lived on. Weston’s piece makes frankly gruesome reading for any taxpayer.

And, as we now know, thanks to the tireless research of blogger Sixth Estate, Harper has already distributed more patronage plums than any PM in history, and continues to hand out the goodies to the party faithful.

Surely Weston will find a federally-run hospital without patients shortly—it can only be a matter of time.

[H/t]