Angry in the Great White North

From the Globe and Mail:

Public Works Minister Michael Fortier has asked for a report on the status of reforms to overhaul the federal government's procurement and real estate businesses following revelations a consulting contract mushroomed in value and controversy over a fact-finding trip by two senior advisers.

The government wants to cut $2.5-billion out of its $13-billion annual procurement budget over the next five years, in part by purchasing goods and services from a smaller number of large suppliers.

But before more reforms are made, the minister wants answers on two issues raised by The Globe and Mail this week, a senior Public Works official said: a trip to London by two high-ranking advisers that was marred by missed and cancelled meetings; and a consulting contract with A.T. Kearney Ltd. that was supposed to be worth $15-million over four years but has cost $24-million in only nine months.

The contract to A.T. Kearney was awarded by the Liberals last November. Not surprisingly, the cost overruns were approved by bureaucrats without consulting the new minister who took over in February:

The Public Works official said the increases were approved by the public service bureaucracy, not by Mr. Fortier, who now feels he needs to take more control over the reform process.

The top bureaucrat, known as a the deputy minister in the Canadian system, is David Marshall:

Mr. Fortier is expecting a briefing on the contract when his deputy minister, David Marshall, returns from holidays in Europe later this month.

David Marshall has been deputy minister for quite some time (normal, since the deputy minister is a non-political appointment that is supposed to provide continuity even as ministers come and go as the result of elections). He was deputy minister during the Abotech affair. This post helps summarize the current status of this still little understood scandal, in which David Marshall played a role:

Thanks to a reader for the heads up on this story in the Ottawa Citizen:

Ex-MP's firm was a conduit for federal hiring report

An audit report shows how a company founded by former Liberal MP David Smith was paid to serve as a middleman in 13 government contracts, even though the company had "no relationship" with the government departments issuing the contracts and "little knowledge" of the consultants hired to do the work.

The December 2005 report by the international auditing firm KPMG found evidence that Mr. Smith's company, Abotech, was used as a conduit through which government departments hired the consultants they wanted for contracts, effectively circumventing the competitive bidding process.

A key player in this conduit was David Smith's cousin, Frank Brazeau, a bureaucrat in Public Works. How he managed to get away with this, why he did it, and how the situation was handled by Marshall are still questions without satisfactory answers:

What did Frank Brazeau get out of this? That's still an unanswered question. One possibility is a kickback from David Smith and Abotech, but to find out would require examination of bank records, and for that you need a warrant. Another possibility is favoured treatment and promotions inside of CAC, but that would would implicate his supervisors. In that scenario, how far up would the trail go? To David Marshall, the Deputy Minister? To his former boss and Liberal leadership hopeful, Scott Brison? Would they involved in the scam, or if not, a subsequent coverup? We might never know.

Now this Kearney contract. I'd love to know exactly who handled the contract, and how many people it took to move the contract from Public Works to A. T. Kearney. And how David Marshall managed to keep the lid on it for ten months.