Government Operations committee  No, we were not responsible for overall financial—

Government Operations committee  I just want point out that there was a concerted effort to hold back information. That's what's concerning. Whether it's through ATIPs, through access on the internal investigation or what's alleged about us, it's all being held back, and that's what's concerning.

Government Operations committee  Can I add something to that?

Government Operations committee  I don't want to leave the committee with the sense that there were no discussions or governance; there were. The reason we were working 12- to 16-hour days was that there were ongoing meetings throughout every day, three, four or five times a week, usually three to four times a day—everything from low-level technical meetings to working with PHAC and their seniors and our seniors.

Government Operations committee  We can go back to the opening comments, but with the Prime Minister opining in on this, it felt like it was, yes, directed at us.

Government Operations committee  The PSFs were shared with OAG. The PSFs were based on allegations unfounded, untested, without context, and even saying no evidence. What's leading me to say that is the—

Government Operations committee  Maybe I can answer that. We had not refused to participate. In fact, it was the absolute reverse. Second, the investigator was aware we were on medical leave when it was originally asked. Third, what is against policy is not maintaining continuity of evidence and articulating that and sharing that information.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I'll take that one, because Mr. MacDonald was gone by that time. What I can confirm is that I was not involved in the development of that RFP, the request for proposal. I was not involved in the requirements. There was a separate team of people who were involved in developing that.

Government Operations committee  We doubt, with respect to what the CBSA told them, the terms and conditions that they put on the table to participate in the investigation and share the report. The other thing that's concerning, Madame, is that we have been asking for disclosure of these original allegations and we still have yet to receive them.

Government Operations committee  I don't have evidence, but I think there was an assumption from Botler AI that Mr. MacDonald and I were aware that this other initiative was going on, but we were not. It was unbeknownst to us. We were not part of those email chains. When human resources asked us to stop the feasibility study—I'm calling it “project one”—they are the client, so we stopped it.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Just for clarity, we didn't say that; CBSA said that.

Government Operations committee  Can I add one more thing?

Government Operations committee  I also want to highlight that through an ATIP, we found an email directly from Ritika Dutt to the president, John Ossowski, in March of—

Government Operations committee  —2020. Unbeknownst to us, there were some other dealings going on in partnering with some other project, although we don't have the details. Mr. MacDonald and I were unaware of this, but through ATIPs we discovered that there were direct conversations right to the top about working on other initiatives.