There was a time not so long ago when Stephen Harper and other members of his then opposition party raged against the Liberal habit of announcing much larger than expected budget surpluses.

Think back to 2004 when the opposition accused Paul Martin and the Liberals of a kind of financial dyslexia for turning a forecasted budget surplus of $1.9 billion into a whopping $9.1 billion.

This practice of underestimating the surplus so incensed the Conservatives that they promised to introduce a new position once elected — an independent Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Sure enough, the position was included in the Federal Accountability Act, the first piece of legislation the Conservatives introduced in 2006.

A core responsibility of this officer would be to ensure what the government called ''truth in budgeting'' and ''to improve the transparency and credibility of its fiscal forecasting.''

Fast forward to today.

There was Prime Minister Harper in Toronto with his finance minister, Jim Flaherty, announcing a $13.8 billion surplus.

That's nearly $5 billion more than the surplus forecast in the federal budget in March.

What does the Parliamentary Budget Officer have to say about that?

We don't know.

The position is still unfilled.

But the first advertisements seeking qualified candidates appeared just this week, in the careers section of several newspapers.