Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thank you for inviting me here today.
My name is Greg McEvoy. I'm an associate partner with KPMG in the forensic group. I am a chartered accountant, and have worked as a forensic accountant for approximately 16 years. I am designated as a specialist in forensic and investigative accounting by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. A significant portion of my experience has involved working with the federal government.
In late October 2004, KPMG was called by Consulting and Audit Canada and asked to review and investigate the procurement activity that CAC had conducted on behalf of the RCMP National Compensation Policy Centre, or NCPC.
I was the project manager leading this work, and significantly involved in the file. Initially KPMG was asked to review 31 contracts that CAC managed on behalf of the NCPC, and 30 of these contracts had been managed by a specific project manager, Mr. Frank Brazeau. Our file review of these 31 contracts took place from October to December of 2004. We identified serious concerns in the manner in which these contracts were procured. Due to our initial findings with respect to these contracts, a decision was made to review an additional 14 contracts, 13 of which were awarded to a company called Abotech Inc., which we understood to be owned and managed by Mr. David Smith.
Based on KPMG's review of these 45 contracts and related information, it is our view that the processes for managing and administering these contracts, when considered in their entirety, did not meet Treasury Board policy. The contracting was not conducted in a manner that would stand the test of public scrutiny in matters of prudence and probity. It did not facilitate access or encourage competition; quite the contrary. It did not reflect fairness in the spending of public funds. In particular, we found evidence of a process to facilitate contracts to desired resources, contract splitting, and contract backdating involving the creation of contracts for work that had already been performed.
In the case of Abotech, we found evidence of a pattern of referrals from Mr. Brazeau to Abotech, and also evidence of a process to facilitate contracts through Abotech to a resource desired by a given client.
We attempted to interview Mr. Brazeau during this timeframe, as his explanations and perspectives were obviously key to gaining a full understanding of his actions. However, he elected not be interviewed on the advice of his legal and union advisers. His response to KPMG is included on page 4 of the executive summary of our report.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I will be pleased to answer any questions you may have.