Government Operations Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2023

[Kristian Firth]

I made the edits, but again, the wrong version was sent.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Firth, the government received forged worked experience for Ritika Dutt and Amir Morv of Botler. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were awarded based on fraudulent points invoicing. That's incredibly serious.

On Tuesday, Colin Wood told us that he simply submitted the documents that GC Strategies provided to Dalian. If that's true, then you're responsible for fraud.

I want to give you a chance to respond to that.

[Kristian Firth]

You're calling it fraud. It was a genuine mistake that was not made with intent. This is not fraud.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You're telling me you changed a résumé with someone's experience of two months to 51 months, that that's not fraud, and also that this doesn't give you a better chance to get other contracts from the Government of Canada in the future. I bet your competitors would have a different view of that.

[Kristian Firth]

This was a solitary mistake, made once, that I'm owning up to. This is not something I do frequently to gain business and get a competitive edge.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

In the game of—

[Kristian Firth]

The wrong version was sent through.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Okay.

Have you done any work with Deloitte as a subcontractor or ghost contractor?

[Kristian Firth]

I don't think so.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

What about Pricewaterhouse Coopers?

[Kristian Firth]

I don't have this information in front of me. You're asking about clients I've had in the last eight years that I don't have.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You wouldn't even know if you had contracts with someone, an organization, like Pricewaterhouse Coopers. You wouldn't be able to recall that.

[Kristian Firth]

We've had hundreds of task authorizations. I'm sorry. I can get back to you in writing on any question you pose about subcontractors. I can get back to you. I just don't have that information in front of me.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

How much money did you get paid for the Botler contract and Dalian and Coradix? Was it $350,000?

[Kristian Firth]

No.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Did GC Strategies get that much?

[Kristian Firth]

I received zero payment at all for any work done with Botler.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You never got any funding from Dalian or Coradix.

[Kristian Firth]

That's correct.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You just wrote a cheque to Botler for $112,000 out of the goodwill of GC Strategies.

[Kristian Firth]

The federal government paid their prime, which was Dalian and Coradix. They, in turn, because we had a contract between the two of us.... I then paid the full amount owing to Botler straight away.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You paid it from GC Strategies—

[Kristian Firth]

That's correct.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

—and you billed out Dalian and Coradix.

[Kristian Firth]

No. I invoiced.... It was a zero per cent pass-through. No money was made at all. Whatever CBSA paid Dalian and whatever Dalian paid me, I paid Botler, and they cashed both cheques.