Eggleton says he and MacAulay followed contract rules

OTTAWA (PoliticsWatch posted October 7, 2002 @ 5 p.m.) Former Defence Minister Art Eggleton defended Lawrence MacAulay's decision to award a single-sourced contract to a friend, but repeatedly said he had also followed the rules when ousted from Cabinet.

In a scrum after question period, the now low-profile Eggleton said he believed the Solicitor-General followed the contract rules when he awarded a $140,000 contract to MacIsaac Younker Roche Soloman for strategic advice. Everette Roche, who was MacAulay's official agent during the last two federal elections, is a partner in the Prince Edward Island firm. 

Eggleton drew parallels to his own contract scandal in the spring, when it was made public he gave former girlfriend Maggie Maier a $32,000 contract for studying post-traumatic stress order. Ethics counsellor Howard Wilson told Prime Minister Jean Chrétien the case was in "clear breach" of the conflict-of-interest code and Eggleton was dumped from Cabinet.  

"I said back on May 26 with my departure from Cabinet that I respected the Prime Minister's right to decide who's in his Cabinet and to remove people as he sees fit," Eggleton said. "I said also on that occasion I disagree with the reason because we followed the rules. I'm saying that same thing today."

When asked if there was a double-standard for MacAulay, he said "I don't know. We'll have to find out what Mr. Wilson has to say about the circumstances involving Mr. MacAulay versus the circumstances involving myself."

MacAulay was once again badgered by the Canadian Alliance today in question period and was forced to defend his decision. 

The Solicitor-General released a statement on Friday which said the contract was posted on the Advance Contract Award Notice section of the public MERX government system in March 2001. After no appeals were made to the department, the contract was signed May 10, 2001.

According to Treasury Board guidelines, the bidding process on a contract can be skipped if there is a pressing emergency, the contract is under $25,000, it's not in public interest to solicit bids, or only one person or firm is capable of doing the work. 

The Alliance, who uncovered the contract through an Access to Information request, has been pushing both Chrétien and MacAulay to explain. 

"Nobody has explained the inconsistencies with the Prime Minister's standards saying you can't reward family or friends when clearly the beneficiary of this contract was the Minister's official agent," Harper said outside the House of Commons.

Harper also accused MacAulay of changing his story and challenged him to produce documents with the advice he got from the P.E.I. accounting firm.

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