Tories: Liberal 'legacy' behind auditor general's findings
- Thread starter CBC News
- Start date
Hey Juan!
Could you please clarify something for me?
Is this the Liberal legacy Cretien was looking to leave us?
"The bulk of wrongdoings found in Fraser's report were "the legacy of slack oversight and mismanagement" of the Liberals during their 12 years in office, Baird charged."
Edited to add...
What were saying about debt creation and crediblity?
Could you please clarify something for me?
Is this the Liberal legacy Cretien was looking to leave us?
"The bulk of wrongdoings found in Fraser's report were "the legacy of slack oversight and mismanagement" of the Liberals during their 12 years in office, Baird charged."
Edited to add...
What were saying about debt creation and crediblity?
Last edited:
Will civil servants EVER be held accountable? NO. Here's another example of mismanagement of our tax dollars. So what is Harper going to do about it, nothing. Oh notice the sentence I highlighted in purple, a Harper connection me thinks. It's not who you know it's who ya blow in politics. I need a bath.
Firm to sue Public Works over $1B real estate deal
'Gloves are coming off,' after auditor's report tabled today, CEO says
Kathryn MayThe Ottawa Citizen
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Bruce Atyeo has waited four years for today's auditor general's report so he can take Public Works to court and get to the bottom of what he calls the "dark story" behind the bungling of a $1-billion contract to relocate more than 12,000 military and RCMP workers and bureaucrats the federal government moves to new jobs every year.
"Their actions cost me a lot of money and we're going to sue them for it because they didn't act appropriately," said Mr. Atyeo, president and CEO of Envoy Relocation Services.
"We bid on this contract and we weren't treated fairly. They didn't manage the procurement process fairly and transparently and wasted my time, money and effort in bidding for a contract that we never had a chance at getting."
Mr. Atyeo has been threatening legal action since his Oakville-based firm was disqualified as a contender for the contract won by Royal LePage Relocation Services in 2002.
The decision sparked a long battle with Public Works at the Canadian International Trade Tribunal and Federal Court over the department's handling and evaluation of the bids.
The dispute briefly caught the limelight when Public Works internal investigators confirmed that bureaucrats involved in selecting the winning bid took gifts from Royal LePage, but the most damaging revelation was that the bureaucrat who oversaw the contract went on a Caribbean cruise with a Royal LePage executive.
Graham Badun, president of Royal LePage Relocation Services, says the company found no wrongdoing in the cruise incident because everyone paid their own way.
"Our beef is with Public Works, not Royal LePage," said Mr. Atyeo. "We got sucked into something that we never had any chance of winning. We didn't have a snowball's chance in hell and I intend to prove that."
Mr. Atyeo said the auditor general's report is the last of the formal and "polite" channels he pursued in pressing his case and its release gives him the green light to go to court.
"We don't have to be polite anymore," he said. "We went to the trade tribunal, followed the rules, and professionally followed all the right channels ... But once the report is out, the gloves are off and we're going to dig into this until we get to the truth and I am convinced it is very ugly."
Ms. Fraser undertook her audit at the request of the Commons public accounts committee, which eventually passed a motion proposed by now deceased Bloc Quebecois MP Benoit Sauvageau after MPs were lobbied from all sides on whether to investigate. Royal LePage's lobbyist at the time was Sandra Buckler, who is now Prime Minister Stephen Harper's director of communications.
Public Works is braced for a drubbing today from Auditor General Sheila Fraser, who sent a team to probe how the department awarded the contract and whether it followed federal contracting policies and regulations. The audit also examined whether departments using the program had mechanisms in place to determine how well it worked.
The audit is expected to be another embarrassment for Public Works, the government's procurement arm, which has been trying shed its reputation of mismanagement and corruption left by the glare of the sponsorship scandal.
The department's latest blow came last week when the government backed off on the promised savings it expected to achieve by overhauling the way it buys goods and services. Public Works' procurement reforms, begun under the Liberals, have been dogged by controversy, a near-revolt of suppliers and savings projections now said to be $1.4 billion too high.
Ms. Fraser's report today will include the findings of a dozen audits, half of which involved Public Works in some way, including the awarding and management of a contract that went to First Canadian Health Management Corp. to process claims for Health Canada.
She will also report her findings on Old Age Security, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, large information technology projects, Health Canada regulatory programs, protecting public assets at the Office of the Correctional Investigator, the role of federally appointed board members at Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the government's expenditure management system.
The government is the biggest mover of employees in the country. It launched a pilot project in 1999 that was supposed to reduce the soaring costs of relocating public servants by giving them incentives to save money on their moves. That contract went to Royal LePage Relocation Services, which was hired to manage the moves, overseeing everything from home sales and purchases, rentals, appraisals, mortgages and legal services.
It expired three years later and Public Works put the contract out to tender and the fireworks began.
At the centre of Mr. Atyeo's allegations is that Public Works, the government's procurement arm, steered that contract to Royal LePage in 2002 by setting up a bid and evaluation process that favoured the company.
He and another bidder, Prudential Relocation Canada, made the same allegation at the trade tribunal, which agreed and recommended Public Works re-evaluate the bids.
Public Works, however, decided to throw the contract open to competition again and Royal LePage won it a second time. Envoy, which submitted a cheaper bid that was also 92-per-cent compliant, then filed a second complaint with the trade tribunal. The tribunal upheld Envoy's complaint and ordered Public Works to re-evaluate the bids.
This time the department went to the Federal Court to oppose the tribunal's ruling. The court upheld the ruling, but not the remedy, so sent it back to the tribunal, which recommended Public Works compensate Envoy for half its bidding costs. Public Works is appealing that.
But Mr. Atyeo said his concerns are more than bidding irregularities. He also questions whether Public Works kept an eye on the contract to ensure that the $40 million in annual real estate fees and commissions generated by transfers were fairly distributed in the industry. He said Royal LePage's real estate agents' share of the market has increased since it had the contract, especially in towns and cities with military bases and federal workers
Mr. Badun said Royal LePage's realty services operate separately from its relocation arm. He said Royal LePage has been aggressively expanding its real estate operations "so to say it is because of the relocation business is a hard one to connect." He said the company never referred bureaucrats who were moving to real estate agents at Royal LePage or any other realtor.
"As someone who doesn't live in Ottawa, you hear stories about government and you assume, surely they must be exaggerated, but after this, I fear they are understated," said Mr. Atyeo.
Firm to sue Public Works over $1B real estate deal
'Gloves are coming off,' after auditor's report tabled today, CEO says
Kathryn MayThe Ottawa Citizen
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Bruce Atyeo has waited four years for today's auditor general's report so he can take Public Works to court and get to the bottom of what he calls the "dark story" behind the bungling of a $1-billion contract to relocate more than 12,000 military and RCMP workers and bureaucrats the federal government moves to new jobs every year.
"Their actions cost me a lot of money and we're going to sue them for it because they didn't act appropriately," said Mr. Atyeo, president and CEO of Envoy Relocation Services.
"We bid on this contract and we weren't treated fairly. They didn't manage the procurement process fairly and transparently and wasted my time, money and effort in bidding for a contract that we never had a chance at getting."
Mr. Atyeo has been threatening legal action since his Oakville-based firm was disqualified as a contender for the contract won by Royal LePage Relocation Services in 2002.
The decision sparked a long battle with Public Works at the Canadian International Trade Tribunal and Federal Court over the department's handling and evaluation of the bids.
The dispute briefly caught the limelight when Public Works internal investigators confirmed that bureaucrats involved in selecting the winning bid took gifts from Royal LePage, but the most damaging revelation was that the bureaucrat who oversaw the contract went on a Caribbean cruise with a Royal LePage executive.
Graham Badun, president of Royal LePage Relocation Services, says the company found no wrongdoing in the cruise incident because everyone paid their own way.
"Our beef is with Public Works, not Royal LePage," said Mr. Atyeo. "We got sucked into something that we never had any chance of winning. We didn't have a snowball's chance in hell and I intend to prove that."
Mr. Atyeo said the auditor general's report is the last of the formal and "polite" channels he pursued in pressing his case and its release gives him the green light to go to court.
"We don't have to be polite anymore," he said. "We went to the trade tribunal, followed the rules, and professionally followed all the right channels ... But once the report is out, the gloves are off and we're going to dig into this until we get to the truth and I am convinced it is very ugly."
Ms. Fraser undertook her audit at the request of the Commons public accounts committee, which eventually passed a motion proposed by now deceased Bloc Quebecois MP Benoit Sauvageau after MPs were lobbied from all sides on whether to investigate. Royal LePage's lobbyist at the time was Sandra Buckler, who is now Prime Minister Stephen Harper's director of communications.
Public Works is braced for a drubbing today from Auditor General Sheila Fraser, who sent a team to probe how the department awarded the contract and whether it followed federal contracting policies and regulations. The audit also examined whether departments using the program had mechanisms in place to determine how well it worked.
The audit is expected to be another embarrassment for Public Works, the government's procurement arm, which has been trying shed its reputation of mismanagement and corruption left by the glare of the sponsorship scandal.
The department's latest blow came last week when the government backed off on the promised savings it expected to achieve by overhauling the way it buys goods and services. Public Works' procurement reforms, begun under the Liberals, have been dogged by controversy, a near-revolt of suppliers and savings projections now said to be $1.4 billion too high.
Ms. Fraser's report today will include the findings of a dozen audits, half of which involved Public Works in some way, including the awarding and management of a contract that went to First Canadian Health Management Corp. to process claims for Health Canada.
She will also report her findings on Old Age Security, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, large information technology projects, Health Canada regulatory programs, protecting public assets at the Office of the Correctional Investigator, the role of federally appointed board members at Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the government's expenditure management system.
The government is the biggest mover of employees in the country. It launched a pilot project in 1999 that was supposed to reduce the soaring costs of relocating public servants by giving them incentives to save money on their moves. That contract went to Royal LePage Relocation Services, which was hired to manage the moves, overseeing everything from home sales and purchases, rentals, appraisals, mortgages and legal services.
It expired three years later and Public Works put the contract out to tender and the fireworks began.
At the centre of Mr. Atyeo's allegations is that Public Works, the government's procurement arm, steered that contract to Royal LePage in 2002 by setting up a bid and evaluation process that favoured the company.
He and another bidder, Prudential Relocation Canada, made the same allegation at the trade tribunal, which agreed and recommended Public Works re-evaluate the bids.
Public Works, however, decided to throw the contract open to competition again and Royal LePage won it a second time. Envoy, which submitted a cheaper bid that was also 92-per-cent compliant, then filed a second complaint with the trade tribunal. The tribunal upheld Envoy's complaint and ordered Public Works to re-evaluate the bids.
This time the department went to the Federal Court to oppose the tribunal's ruling. The court upheld the ruling, but not the remedy, so sent it back to the tribunal, which recommended Public Works compensate Envoy for half its bidding costs. Public Works is appealing that.
But Mr. Atyeo said his concerns are more than bidding irregularities. He also questions whether Public Works kept an eye on the contract to ensure that the $40 million in annual real estate fees and commissions generated by transfers were fairly distributed in the industry. He said Royal LePage's real estate agents' share of the market has increased since it had the contract, especially in towns and cities with military bases and federal workers
Mr. Badun said Royal LePage's realty services operate separately from its relocation arm. He said Royal LePage has been aggressively expanding its real estate operations "so to say it is because of the relocation business is a hard one to connect." He said the company never referred bureaucrats who were moving to real estate agents at Royal LePage or any other realtor.
"As someone who doesn't live in Ottawa, you hear stories about government and you assume, surely they must be exaggerated, but after this, I fear they are understated," said Mr. Atyeo.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006
Heh heh heh....the magic of democracy.
Elected to office by the Canadian people....
How many more times will Canadians bite into this horsepucky that their vote means a damn thing!?
Once again...it doesn't matter if he or she is a Tory a Grit or a NTI....(non-terrestrial intelligence) because Ottawa its boards treasuries and councils are as corrupt as any Cosa Nostra, Mafioso, motorcycle guns-drugs-and money laundering enterprise found among the graduates of every judicial precinct from Kilarny to Timbuktu....
It's the government the electorate wants or it wouldn't be in power..... right!?
Elected to office by the Canadian people....
How many more times will Canadians bite into this horsepucky that their vote means a damn thing!?
Once again...it doesn't matter if he or she is a Tory a Grit or a NTI....(non-terrestrial intelligence) because Ottawa its boards treasuries and councils are as corrupt as any Cosa Nostra, Mafioso, motorcycle guns-drugs-and money laundering enterprise found among the graduates of every judicial precinct from Kilarny to Timbuktu....
It's the government the electorate wants or it wouldn't be in power..... right!?
The big question is will Harper do anything about these issues? Will Public Works be held accountable? I don't think so, I'm beginning to believe the real power in Canada is the fat cats that work for the Feds it's not like they ever get fired. Depressing to see our tax dollars wasted, while those in need can't get ten cents out of the Pro. Goverment for Meds, transportation to chemo or radiation etc. In NS if you make over 17,000 a year you do not qualify for assistance with meds or transportation. Yet some cancer drugs can run into the thousands a month, so unless you quit your job beg for welfare you can go without treatment and meds and die faster what Free Goverment Health Care we have in Canada. NOT.
Well Bear are you behind the evil acts of the Public Works?? Did you or did you not allow this contract to go to tender whilst tipping of the chosen tenderer? Is that a word?
I'm amazed you don't know that Mulroney had to throw out a cabinet minister for corruption in each of the nine years he was in office. I don't suppose Harper will be any different.
I assume we will let the appropriate parties have a trial. If found guilty, give them the maximum sentence.
Let me say, I'm no big fan of Mulroney. Reform Party guy, remember?
But that administration couldn't polish the boots of Jean the Don when it came to coruption, nepotism, and general nastiness.
As I remember it, Robert Coates was forced to resign because he went to see a stripper in Germany. Did he have sensitive materials on him? I'm not sure.
The Liberals were IMPORTING strippers, for God's sake.
To say nothing of mobsters running the Quebec wing of the Liberal party.
Or Jean's great friendship and business relationship with a con-man and arsonist hotelier.
Or his use of the RCMP as his personal Gestapo.
Need I go on? (Don't get me started!)
But that administration couldn't polish the boots of Jean the Don when it came to coruption, nepotism, and general nastiness.
As I remember it, Robert Coates was forced to resign because he went to see a stripper in Germany. Did he have sensitive materials on him? I'm not sure.
The Liberals were IMPORTING strippers, for God's sake.
To say nothing of mobsters running the Quebec wing of the Liberal party.
Or Jean's great friendship and business relationship with a con-man and arsonist hotelier.
Or his use of the RCMP as his personal Gestapo.
Need I go on? (Don't get me started!)
You couldn't be any more correct then that.
At least he threw them out. Your Liberals gave them bigger purses to pilfer.
My point was, that the distribution of shysters is likely about the same in every party. That the Liberakls were in too long is without question, and that was because the tories self-destructed after Mulroney. The people went with the devil they knew rather than an unknown Stockwell Day, or another unknown, Stephen Harper.
The real problem with the liberals is that
1..they were in too long...
2. They think it's there God given right to Govern the Country..
and 3. They learned over the years that they can do no wrong..whatever they did they laughed a bit and were re-elected....It's like the Maple leafs under Harold Ballard...no matter that the team was terrible..he put no money into the Gardens and they still came...
The liberals have not learned different and will no until a generation of them are gone.....Like Mulroneys bunch.....
1..they were in too long...
2. They think it's there God given right to Govern the Country..
and 3. They learned over the years that they can do no wrong..whatever they did they laughed a bit and were re-elected....It's like the Maple leafs under Harold Ballard...no matter that the team was terrible..he put no money into the Gardens and they still came...
The liberals have not learned different and will no until a generation of them are gone.....Like Mulroneys bunch.....
But, but but but but will Harper and his band of mute merry men do something about the corruption, the Liberals paid corruption lip service what shall Harper do with Fraser's report. :evil3:
I hope the Liberal Party is now cleaning itself up......not that I'll ever vote for the bastards, but for the sake of the country.
And yes, there are shysters in every party.
But shysters like winners, that way there are more chances to get their fingers in the till.........so I would say the Liberal Party has an unusual number of them.
Let's give the Tories unbroken majorities for 13 years as an experiment......we'll see who is more corrupt.
Okay?