Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to quote the Deputy Auditor General. To summarize the situation, he said previously in committee that he found it confusing that a firm of KPMG's size and reputation had accepted a situation that was highly questionable, to say the least. That surprised a lot of people, myself included. It's very problematic. He said that taxpayers didn't get their money's worth, knowing that KPMG had agreed to a huge profit margin for a third party. As Mr. Brock mentioned, it's almost $20 million in total for an app like ArriveCAN, which is huge. I truly believe that KPMG simply forgot that it had a higher role to play. That role was to ensure that taxpayers get some value for their money, that the government, public servants and all stakeholders obey the law.
I now want to make a very important point. When you did your research and your risk and conflict of interest analysis, it's quite surprising that it didn't come up that Kristian Firth, who Mr. Bashir had several meetings with and contacted a number of times, was in a senior position at Veritaaq when it was accused of rigged bidding by the government and by the Canada Border Services Agency. That should have been part of your risk and conflict of interest analysis.
If it came up and Mr. Bashir decided to ignore it, that's very problematic. If it didn't come up, I think you need to review your risk and conflict of interest analysis, because it should have come up. This individual was a senior officer in a company that had been accused by the government. Judges have even asked that all Veritaaq employees receive training to prevent bid rigging. I'm using the English term because I want to make sure you understand the problematic situation in which Mr. Firth had been involved.
Here's my last question for you today, and I'd like you to choose your words carefully: Do you believe that KPMG has a role to play in helping to enforce the law and in ensuring better value for taxpayers' money? Will you pass that lesson on to your colleagues, particularly Mr. Bashir? I wish he were here today to hear me.
Thank you.