Canadian Mint investigating 'missing' gold

The Canadian Mint announced June 3 that it has called in external auditors to investigate the seeming disappearance of "a significant quantity of gold, silver and other precious metals."

The Canadian Mint announced a discrepancy between 2008 inventory statements that listed the amount of precious metals held in its stockpile and the actual amount of precious metals physically present today. It is hoped that the discrepancy is an error only, but officials admitted that there is a possibility that there was a theft. Auditors have been called in and it is expected that there will be an answer to the puzzle by the end of June. No one said how much is missing, but theft is considered to be very unlikely. The "missing" precious metals is further fodder for the Liberal Party of Canada, which has posted a news release on the official Liberal Party of Canada site saying,

"The Harper Conservatives' pattern of financial incompetence continues with the discovery that a significant quantity of gold has been lost and possibly stolen from the Royal Canadian Mint, and that royal heirlooms lent to Rideau Hall were sold online by the government at bargain-basement prices, Liberal MPs said today.

"As if losing control of our deficit wasn't enough, now the 50-billion dollar man is giving away the government's silver and gold," said Liberal Transport Critic Joe Volpe. "This is a scandal. With the Mint's admission that this gold could have been stolen, we need to know why the police haven't been called in to investigate. We need to know how much was lost and what's being done to recover it."

The search for the missing gold has apparently been underway for four months, reported Canada.com.