We need to hear from David Smith. The KPMG report, audit, indicates that his company was intimately involved in what seems to be a very sinister contracting scheme involving public funds, and in particular funds from the RCMP, to do little or no work. Contracts passed among four or five people, none of whom did any work at all. Then the end product was a recommendation that the originator of the make-work project should keep his job. That's what the KPMG audit shows. It does resemble quite stunningly the modus operandi—witness during the sponsorship scandal. The contracting aspects of this investigation are very critical because they do involve improper enrichment of very well-connected individuals.
I think the clerk should rely on the expertise of committee members who might have an idea of where he is. The House of Commons might have records of his address, because of course he was a member of this House of Commons and he was paid by the House of Commons. So obviously his cheques, or at least his pay stubs, would have been mailed to him. Presumably he wasn't hard to locate under those instances. Perhaps the Liberal Party would have knowledge of his whereabouts, given that he was a member of the Liberal caucus. Perhaps the Liberal House leader or whip, who always keeps that kind of information—including cellphone numbers and e-mails, etc.—close by in the event of emergencies, would have the ability to locate Mr. Smith.
I note that Mr. Smith's name has been in the newspaper a number of times with regard to this investigation, and I would find it highly surprising if he were not aware of this committee's interest in seeing and hearing him. Perhaps we'll have to run an advertisement around the capital region, where I'm told he lives, so that he might hear that he is being sought out by this parliamentary committee.
I will conclude by saying it is a startling development that someone who was so intimately involved in these money-for-nothing contracts has now seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. He was a public official and very well known, and he was someone who was very easy to locate only a year and a half ago when he was in Parliament. So I don't think there's any excuse for not having him, and I look forward to seeing him located and put right in front of us on the stand.
Thank you.