Government Operations Committee on May 15th, 2024

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you.

How many cases of conflict of interest do you have at Global Affairs?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Unfortunately, I don't have that information.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I'm sure you'll be willing to provide that to the committee.

[Shirley Carruthers]

Yes, absolutely.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Will you also commit to reviewing all contracts, the recipients and those who approve the contracts?

[Shirley Carruthers]

I think we would have to have further details on what you're asking for.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

This would be particular to the conflict of interest that you've said you will provide the information for.

[Shirley Carruthers]

I'll take that back to the department. We'll provide you with information accordingly.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

You've given us the position the person was in. You've given us some explanation of how they didn't benefit.

This individual was in the wrong in signing off on this contract. Was there any sort of reprimand or reprisal in following up on that?

[Shirley Carruthers]

In this particular incident, again, it was the position of the department that this wasn't necessarily wrongdoing. This was more of an error on her part, and she really shouldn't have signed it. She was acting on behalf of her manager. The invoice came in, and I think she should have waited and had that invoice signed off when her supervisor returned.

Unfortunately, I can't speak for the employee. I'm assuming she wanted the vendor to be paid promptly within the terms of the contract.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

What we have seen in many of the contracting issues we have studied at this committee is a broad failure to enforce the Financial Administration Act. I think that's been noted by others who have conducted investigations.

Who is responsible for ensuring that the Financial Administration Act is properly enforced in a department, and perhaps in yours in particular?

[Shirley Carruthers]

Under the FAA, the deputy head is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the Financial Administration Act is respected. Obviously, as the chief financial officer within the department, I have a very important role, as does our auditor. It really is to make sure that the necessary controls are in place to ensure that the Financial Administration Act is respected.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

In the case of the—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much. I'm afraid that's our time, Mrs. Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Mr. Kusmierczyk, please go ahead.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Over the last two years, I've been very pleased to be part of the work of the OGGO committee, which provides a significant level of scrutiny to procurement and contracts, making sure that we're doing everything we possibly can to be accountable to taxpayers and Canadians. It also makes sure that other folks in the procurement and contract business are being accountable, so that we're protecting taxpayers.

Over the last year or so, we've seen an RCMP investigation, we've seen the Auditor General provide a report and we've seen the procurement ombudsman delve deep into the procurement and contract system. Our very own OGGO committee has had numerous meetings. For ArriveCAN, for example, we had 64 witnesses, and for McKinsey, we had 59 witnesses. There's been a Privacy Commissioner report. The Public Sector Integrity Commissioner has been asked to look into this. CBSA has done its own integrity investigation, and now, obviously, we have Global Affairs Canada proactively looking at contracts and procurement. There has been a tremendous level of scrutiny.

Thus far, what all of that work has found is that more documentation is required. We've seen gaps in documentation, and we need stronger record-keeping, especially in the decisions that are made around contracts. What we haven't found in all the investigations and studies that we've seen is any political interference, including political interference in contracts. That's the state of play that we're in.

It's interesting that, over the last year and a half, the biggest whopper or revelation that we've seen is actually from today, when we saw a report from CBC stating that the Conservative Party has been abusing taxpayers by billing them $426,000 for partisan political activity. Anyone who's been an MP for any measurable period of time knows that this is illegal. It is outside of the rules to charge the House of Commons budget and the taxpayer for clearly partisan and political events.

The Conservative Party has now been found to be misappropriating taxpayer funds and abusing the taxpayer. This is what I would describe as robbery in plain sight, basically sending taxpayers the bill for purely political and partisan Conservative events. I think it's something my colleagues around this table really need to respond to. I hope they delve into this misappropriation of taxpayer funds. This is a very serious issue.

My question is for our officials from Global Affairs.

In the United States, over the last number of months, we've seen the MAGA Republicans blocking military aid to Ukraine in the U.S. Congress, which has placed Ukraine at a disadvantage. We're seeing Russia making military advances right now in Ukraine. That's from MAGA Republicans in the United States.

On the Canadian side, we saw the Leader of the Opposition and the Conservative Party try to block—

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Excuse me, Mr. Kusmierczyk.

Mrs. Block, go ahead.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

I know this member has trouble sticking to the matters at hand when it comes to his interventions. I question the relevance of his intervention so far, as it doesn't line up with the study or the questioning of the witnesses before us on the audit report.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks very much.

It is Mr. Kusmierczyk's time if he wishes to go on with this.

Go ahead, please.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Again, in the U.S. we saw MAGA Republicans blocking military aid to Ukraine. In Canada, we're seeing MAGA Conservatives trying to block support for the Ukrainian free trade deal.

I would like to ask our Global Affairs officials whether this is something they would look at in the contracts they have with consultants. Is this the type of issue that would be looked at by some of these consultants? Do they look at the impact on support for Ukraine and at the possible impact on the war in Ukraine?

[Shirley Carruthers]

I'm not aware of any contracts in that area that I could speak to.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Okay, no problem. I want to move on to my next question, then.

In The Globe and Mail last year, there was an article titled “Germany's far right isn't on the doorstep of power. It's already arrived”. It talked about the alarming level of support for far right parties, like Alternative for Germany, which is the AfD party. What we've seen is, again, Conservative MPs—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Mr. Kusmierczyk, you're out of time. Can you wrap up with a question?