OTTAWA – The Harper Government is taking swift action following an explosive report on the F-35 fighter jet program from Canada’s Auditor General, Tuesday.

The Auditor General found the defence department hid the true cost of the fighter jet program and the public works department did not do its job in making sure the rules were followed.

The report has the opposition is up in arms.

To confront the criticism head on, the government is launching a full review and Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a new secretariat will now oversee the program while spending is being frozen.

“The Auditor General has identified a need for greater independence and supervision over some of the activities of the Department of National Defence. In this regard, the government will put that supervision in place before we proceed,” said Harper.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair accused the government of misleading parliament to hide the true cost of the F-35.

“The Auditor General’s report on the F-35 is a litany of poor public administration, bad decision making and lack of accountability by conservative ministers,” said Mulcair.

The government had long maintained that Canada would pay $75-million per plane.
The report claims that is an old estimate and that the full cost of the program would not be known for a long time.