Following this week’s motion to ban insider contracting for federal employees, it has been disclosed that in 2023 the Department of Works fired five employees for sweetheart contracting.Deputy Minister Arianne Reza testified at the Commons Public Accounts Committee Thursday that managers were concerned about “integrity of the system,” according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “In the course of the last year we have laid off five employees who failed to declare a conflict of interest,” said Reza. “We fired five of them.” Reza did not name the employees or detail their wrongdoing. Federal contracting typically involves billions, the deputy minister said. “Where does the buck stop?” asked Bloc Québécois MP Sébastien Lemire. “We did our best,” replied Deputy Reza, adding that federal employees must disclose all private business interests. “The area of procurement is one that inherently has higher levels of associated risk in terms of conflicts of interest.”“You do this verification after the fact?” asked Lemire. “When we hire a person, before you sign your letter of offer you have to fill out a form that states your conflict of interest,” replied Reza. “There are approximately 450,000 transactions that are procurement related done on an annual basis across the Government of Canada.”“At the Department of Public Works we do approximately 16,000 of these transactions,” said Reza. “Those that we do actually represents about $20 billion a year for procurement on an annual spend of the Government of Canada which I believe is around $34 billion.”On Wednesday, the committee, despite opposition from the Trudeau Liberals, passed a vote 6 to 5 to ban all insider deals for federal contracts. “There are rules that already exist around public servants needing to disclose whether they have other employment income sources,” said Auditor General Karen Hogan. “That disclosure is meant to ensure there isn’t a conflict of interest.” The problem is “rules need to be enforced,” said Hogan.Canadian taxpayers spent $19.5 billion on federal contracting last year, estimates the Budget Office. “The government is proposing to raise planned spending on professional and special services to $19.5 billion, an increase of $2.2 billion or 13%,” states a Budget Office report from March 3, 2023 called The Government’s Expenditure Plan And Main Estimates For 2023-2024.
