The Department of Public Works promises to disclose what, if anything, it did to verify the credibility of federal COVID suppliers. Records showed that hurried contracting and outright theft cost taxpayers more than $100 million, records show..“While the department established processes at the outset of the pandemic aimed at ensuring oversight and due diligence, the department recognizes procurement processes can always be improved,” staff wrote the Commons public accounts committee. “In the context of advance payments this includes undertaking financial checks such as validating suppliers’ financial capability in an emergency situation.”.The public accounts committee had requested by September 30 a formal report from the department “explaining how its internal processes for conducting checks verify the financial strength of suppliers before awarding contracts that involve advance payments.” The department said it would comply..Cabinet in a March 31 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the house of Commons disclosed losses of $106 million in payments to suppliers who never delivered medical supplies. “Procurement initiatives were undertaken in an unprecedented environment of extremely competitive global markets and at times depleting global supply chains,” wrote staff..One supplier, Tango Communications Marketing of Montréal, was sued by federal lawyers for $82 million paid for delivery of 37,000,000 masks from China. Deliveries were late and shoddy, according to Ontario Superior Court records..A separate supplier 1245431 B.C. Limited of Toronto was sued for $7.9 million. The company “failed to meet their contractual obligations” over supply of high-grade N95 masks, said the Inquiry Of Ministry..A third contractor Spartan Bioscience Inc. of Ottawa was paid $16.4 million for COVID test kits that failed clinical trials. The company subsequently filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors..The Inquiry also calculated $1.2 million in losses of pandemic supplies due to theft. It did not elaborate. Blacklock’s earlier obtained records concerning the July 4, 2020 theft of millions of masks being trucked from John C. Munro International Airport in Hamilton, Ont..Auditor General Karen Hogan in a 2021 report Securing Personal Protective Equipment And Medical Devices said 36 percent of COVID suppliers received advance payments in breach of federal rules. Payments totaled more than $600 million..Political aides in an April 5, 2020 staff email in the Prime Minister’s Office indicated they felt pressure to pay quickly for medical supplies. “We are losing deals because the Americans are moving faster than us so we are moving as quickly as possible to wire transfer money now,” wrote staff.
