Evidence of meeting #134 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cbsa.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Are you familiar at all with...? She works for Botler. She has a company called Botler.
As an Individual
She's a co-owner of Botler AI.
What I do know is that she was seeking payment for some of her...for two deliverables, which I think is what she said. My senior director asked me to make sure she got paid. I made sure that she got paid.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
The communication with the partner at Botler came through your senior director.
As an Individual
The communication was submitted through email, and like any other director, they would ask their admin staff to look into it. That was what I did.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Okay. I think I'm going to circle back to that.
Can you elaborate, please, on your role in the procurement process and what role Public Services and Procurement had in this process, particularly when it concerns the work that was done through Botler and also the work for ArriveCAN? Can you elaborate on your involvement?
As an Individual
I was a senior adviser in the director general's office of IT services at CBSA. I had seconded over “at level”. I had no procurement access, and that I have proof of. I had no access to procurement in any way, shape or form. CBSA had its own procurement team, and in fact was recognized for putting in place a series of COVID-19 contracts in, I believe, 2021.
The process was that you got requirements. We had a backlog. We would take those requirements and we would package them up in the way that they told us. IT would give me those requirements. I would put them into a format to submit them to CBSA procurement through email. Then they would generate a purchase requisition—
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Ms. Daly, I'll stop you there. You understand that sometimes we have to interrupt to get on with the questions.
Did you meet with anyone in preparation for today's meeting—anyone who would be working for any member of Parliament or anyone here at the House of Commons?
As an Individual
I am not allowed to talk to anyone because of the security investigations that are ongoing because I spoke out and said not the negative narrative that they wanted—to accuse two former bosses of false allegations.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Okay.
Have you read the Auditor General's report on ArriveCAN?
Liberal
As an Individual
I would say that there are two things the committee should know.
In 2021, OPO did a report on CBSA's procurement. In that report, in October 2020 the CBSA created something called the contract review board to highlight a review of any and all impactful procurements. What that should have flagged them was all of the steps necessary that the Auditor General identified, including project management, setting up more than one cost centre for reporting, etc., which should have been easily done and should have followed that process, because that was what the—
As an Individual
The second thing was the way that Mr. Moor in the finance group made a statement that it was IT services that actually did the procurement. That was physically impossible.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you.
That is the time for Ms. Shanahan.
Ms. Sinclair-Desgagné, you have the floor for six minutes.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Daly, thank you for your very insightful testimony. I will ask you a number of questions in quick succession.
First, you have mentioned several times that former bosses muzzled you or asked you not to talk about what you had seen. Can you give me their names again, please?
As an Individual
I'm very sorry. I cannot understand. I don't have the translation working on my earpiece.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
It might just be an earpiece challenge. They're checking right now.
Ms. Daly, can you hear me in English?
Okay. It seems to be working now.
Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné, please start over. You have six minutes.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I will start over.
Ms. Daly, thank you for your testimony. It does take courage to make accusations against your former bosses. With regard to that, you mentioned that you felt muzzled. Can you tell me the names of those former bosses? I think I heard Ms. Reza's name, but who else was involved? Can you give me their names again, please?
As an Individual
My former director general was Lysane Bolduc, and my senior director was Tom Von Schoenberg.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
Thank you very much.
I have several questions. We have heard a number of witnesses mention your name in various contexts and say they had contacted you, whether it was Ms. Dutt, from Botler AI, or Mr. Firth in the House of Commons.
At the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, we received emails showing that you were actively involved in the procurement process that led to the awarding of the contract to GC Strategies. We also have emails that you sent to Ms. Durigan, who raised questions about the awarding of the contract to GC Strategies. These emails show that you strongly insisted that this contract be awarded to that company.
Did you do that on your own, or were you asked to do it? If so, who asked you to do it?