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It is an unprecedented altercation by two of the most powerful people in the country.

David Christopherson, an NDP MP on the committee, said we either have a clerk of the Privy Council who has his head in the sand, or an auditor general who is “off the rails.”

It’s all about finding blame

Donald Savoie, the dean of academics covering public administration, said he has never seen anything like it.

But he said it’s a positive and constructive airing of the problems facing the bureaucracy.

He sympathized with Wernick’s frustration that much of the coverage is unfair.

“It’s all about finding blame. Nobody ever says government department X did a great job.

All public servants go to work with a shadow on their shoulder. The blame game permeates the whole system, he said.

Certainly, Canada’s public service is better than most in the world when it comes to nepotism, corruption and partisanship, as Wernick said.

But as Savoie pointed out, anyone raving about government efficiency should try calling the Canada Revenue Agency sometime. The feeling among many citizens, far too often, is that public servants aren’t there to do, they’re there to explain why it can’t be done.

While the clerk resented what he saw as the auditor going beyond his mandate to offer a sermon, the two are less diametrically opposed than they might appear at first sight.

At one point in his testimony, Wernick admitted improvements in the culture of the public service are needed.

“I’m not saying we don’t have a culture problem. We are risk averse, we are bureaucratic, we do tend to cling to process, we do tend to cling to rules,” he said — sentiments with which Ferguson would concur.