Thank you.
Thank you to the minister, General Eyre and the senior officials for being here today. It's always a pleasure to have them.
I'm going to preface my first question with a comment. There's a fairly strong consensus around the table on the support we should be providing to Ukraine, and we're glad to receive requests that we can accommodate. It is, however, legitimate to ask questions about the way in which those requests are fulfilled. The case that comes to mind involves 200 light armoured vehicles that were sent to Ukraine after the untendered contract for the equipment was awarded to Roshel. The issue is back in the news.
At the time, questions were raised about the fact that the contract had been awarded without a call for tenders. Now weare learning that bribery and financial pressure may have been why the contract was awarded on a sole-source basis, possibly costing Canadian taxpayers more than a contract with another supplier. It's reported that it may have cost 35% more to procure the Roshel Senator armoured vehicles.
At the time, the government's reason for awarding the sole-sourced contract was that Ukraine's defence minister, Mr. Reznikov, had requested those armoured vehicles specifically. We later found out that President Zelenskyy had threatened to fire Mr. Reznikov over allegations of collusion.
Should DND review its criteria for awarding a contract in response to a request from Ukraine?