The founders of GC Strategies, the firm at the heart of the ArriveCAN scandal, obtained millions in federal government contracts between 2010 and 2015 under another company name.
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Coredal Systems Consulting, founded by the same two men behind GC Strategies, has been awarded at least 9 contracts worth at least $3.6 million, most of them for information technology (IT) consulting work. on behalf of Transport Canada.
The firm changed its name on July 1, 2015 to GC Strategies, but remained based in Ottawa and retained the same core, composed of Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony.
Under its new name, the Ottawa-based SME has accumulated around $258 million for the completion of a total of 140 contracts, of which 46 were obtained without a call for tenders, according to a compilation produced by The Press.
The Minister of Supply and Public Services Jean-Yves Duclos announced on Wednesday the suspension of all contracts with GC Strategies “out of an abundance of caution”. Some less lucrative contracts remain active, we learned The newspaper.
The public service shaken
The links between the federal apparatus and Ottawa’s microenterprise have taken on the appearance of a scandal after the tabling of a devastating report on the management of the ArriveCAN mobile application unveiled Monday by the Auditor General (AG) of Canada, Karen Hogan .
The VG deplored the “worst management of books” on which it laid eyes given the number of non-existent or partial written traces linked to invoices or even the choice of subcontractors. The problem was such that it was impossible to determine either the final price actually paid for ArriveCAN, nor the identity of those responsible for the awarding of the lucrative contracts.
However, eyes are on two former senior officials of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Cameron MacDonald and Antonio Utano, both suspended without pay in April 2023 as part of an internal investigation.
Suspended without pay before being transferred
This suspension without pay, a rare gesture in the public service, did not prevent Antonio Utano from becoming director general at the Canada Revenue Agency and Mr. MacDonald from becoming assistant to the deputy minister of Health.
Called to testify at the Public Accounts committee in November, the two men denounced a smear campaign against them and pointed the finger at Canada’s current chief technology officer, Minh Doan, who was at the start of the COVID pandemic -19 the vice-president of the CBSA and who worked on the contracts awarded to GC Strategies.
According to Globe & Mail, a complaint made internally by a CBSA IT employee accuses Minh Doan of potentially destroying emails and documents related to the awarding of the contract to the microenterprise. Mr. Doan rejected these accusations in an email to the Toronto daily and declared that it was a maneuver to make him a scapegoat.
This Kafkaesque story, which also involves invitations to events and gifts given to civil servants, continues to arouse controversy in Ottawa. The Conservatives cry corruption while the Bloc Québécois calls for the CBSA to be placed under supervision.