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As The Globe and Mail moves towards selecting our Nation Builder of the decade at the end of December, we will be highlighting nominations from our readers on who they believe deserves special recognition for making a major contribution to Canadian society this decade. Today you have suggested Auditor-General Sheila Fraser.

What you wrote:

Abraxas writes: Sheila Fraser HANDS DOWN!! Doing her best to protect us from the slide into third world corruption and criminal misappropriation of our tax dollars.

Lucien Alexandre Marion writes: This year, I submit the one who for many years gave us a true view of our accounting finances for all Canadians: Auditor-General Sheila Fraser

Simonfromvic writes: I nominate Sheila Fraser for holding our governments accountable for their actions.

Spinoza2 writes: Sheila Fraser for her incredible insight into the shenanigans of our various institutions and for reminding us that corruption and mismanagement is rife at all government levels!

Anthony S writes: I nominate Auditor-General Sheila Fraser, for trying to keep the Government honest .....not an easy job.

Sheila Fraser was appointed Auditor-General of Canada on May 31, 2001, leading an organization staffed by 650 employees tasked with auditing federal departments, agencies and most Crown corporations.

The first woman to ever hold the office, Ms. Fraser was a major player in one of the biggest political stories of the decade when her office released an explosive report in February 2004 detailing massive abuses in the Liberal government's sponsorship program.

In 2002, The Globe and Mail – under the Access to Information Act – tried to find out why the government paid $550,000 to advertising firm Groupaction Marketing for a report that could not be found. Then-prime minister Jean Chrétien asked Ms. Fraser to investigate after no one at Public Works or the company could explain it.

By the time Ms. Fraser released her explosive report on Feb. 10, 2004, Paul Martin had taken over the office of prime minister.

The report showed that between 1997 and 2001, $100-million of taxpayer money was diverted from government coffers to Quebec advertising agencies with close ties to the Liberal Party in return for little or no work.

"The federal government ran the sponsorship program in a way that showed little regard for Parliament, the Financial Administration Act, contracting rules and regulations, transparency and value for money," the report read.

Ms. Fraser's revelations had huge political implications for the Liberals, and led Mr. Martin to establish the Gomery commission to conduct a public inquiry on the sponsorship program. The Conservatives had an upswing of support in the next election and the Liberals lost their dominance in the House of Commons, forming the country's first minority government in almost 25 years. Two years later, the Conservatives won enough seats away from the Liberals to form their own minority government.

The former private-sector auditor, who spearheaded a drive for the use of plain language in her office, makes no apologies for avoiding diplomatic niceties.

"I am not a person who is very good, quite frankly, at bureaucratese and [giving] long answers that don't really answer," she said.

Her reports made headlines throughout the decade.

An Oct. 21, 2003 Globe editorial read: “Sheila Fraser, Canada's estimable Auditor-General, has a history of plain speech. Her audits tend to be thorough and pointed, but painstakingly fair-minded. As a result, her rebukes have a political heft that can be devastating. Think of Allan Rock's gun registry, circa 2002, or of former privacy commissioner George Radwanski, whose egregious mismanagement Ms. Fraser exposed in a report late last month.”

Jeffrey Simpson described Ms. Fraser in a June 2003 column as “the federal taxpayers' passionaria.

“She and her large team scrutinize government programs, report to Parliament about them, and sometimes cause ministers and civil servants to tremble,” he wrote. “Nowhere are her reports more eagerly awaited than in the media. Reporters and headline writers seize upon her discoveries of error, bad planning, poor administration and programs gone haywire. Think of the gun-registry costs ballooning out of control. Or the excesses and lax administration at Human Resources Development Canada.”

A native of Dundee, Que., Ms. Fraser earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in 1972 and became a Chartered Accountant in 1974.

Ms. Fraser received the Governor-General's medal commemorating Canada's 125th anniversary in 1992. Ms. Fraser has also been awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Simon Fraser University, Queen's University, the University of Waterloo, Nipissing University, Université de Montréal, Carleton University and McGill University, in recognition of her contributions to the fields of accounting and legislative auditing.