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OTTAWA
- (Web posted March 19, 2002 @ 5:30 p.m.) - Public Works Minister Don Boudria
has asked the Auditor General of Canada to conduct an audit of two contracts
Ottawa awarded to Groupaction Inc. In
February 1999 Ottawa paid the company about $550,000 for a report on how
government could enhance its visibility. In October the company supplied a
report, for which it was paid about $575,000, that studied the impact of federal
government sponsorships. Last week
the government admitted it couldn't find the February report, and
company-supplied documents Boudria produced to prove it existed resembled the
October report. "Officials at
Communication Canada have now concluded that a 1999 report tabled in the House
of Commons on Wednesday, March 13, 2002, and the documents made available on
Thursday, March 14, 2002 are substantially the same," Boudria said in a
prepared statement on Tuesday. So
Auditor General Shelia Fraser's task seems straightforward: determine whether
two different documents submitted in 1999 are essentially the same report. Groupaction,
however, have been prominent financial backers of the Liberal Party, and they
have received government contracts worth millions of dollars from Ottawa in
recent years. That had Canadian
Alliance Leader John Reynolds suggesting in the House of Commons that the
contracts were nothing more than a "kick-back scheme." Outside
the House of Commons he said the RCMP should get involved to do a complete
investigation. It's a possibility
Boudria did not rule out completely. Boudria
said if the auditor general determines the reports are the same, he will ask for
taxpayers money back from Groupaction. "I
will then refer the matter to the RCMP for investigation if necessary," he
said. Also during Question Period,
several MPs said former Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano's appointment as
ambassador to Denmark should be suspended.
Gagliano resigned from politics after he was
dropped from cabinet in January.
At the time the former Quebec MP, who was
Public Works minister when the reports were awarded, had been mired in
controversy over allegations he exerted undue political interference in the
operations of a Crown Corporation.
But Boudria defended his former cabinet
colleague in the House of Commons. "My
predecessor did a very good job," said Boudria. The
public works minister said he would table the auditor general's report in the
House of Commons once it's complete.
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