(Ottawa) The president and founder of Dalian Enterprise Inc., David Yeo, did not receive double remuneration from the government as an employee and as a contractor, according to the firm which obtained the largest contracts for ArriveCAN. She came to his defense in a statement sent to the media. Mr Yeo was suspended from his civil service last week while an internal investigation was carried out.
“At the end of September 2023, well after all work on the ArriveCan application was completed by Dalian, Mr. Yeo’s professional relationship with the Ministry of National Defense changed from that of an IT professional services consultant to that of an IT professional services consultant. “employee,” the company says.
The emailed statement is unsigned and the Dalian spokesperson did not want to be identified when The Press asked him who to attribute it to. The company said Mr Yeo would not grant any interviews at this time.
News of the suspension of another official linked to the financial fiasco ofArriveCAN had the effect of a bomb on Parliament Hill last week. The President of the Treasury Board, Anita Anand, affirmed that she was “definitely not aware” that one of the contractors for the development of this application was also a civil servant in her former department. “In my opinion, this is not normal and it is not correct,” she said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for Mr. Yeo’s immediate dismissal as well as a broader investigation into how government contracts were awarded.
Dalian points out that Mr. Yeo stopped working for Dalian in 2023, that he had entered into “a confidentiality, non-disclosure and non-access agreement” with the company he founded and that he agreed to refrain “from participating in any proposal, project, contract, undertaking or other activity related, directly or indirectly, to the Department of National Defense or any organization of the Government of Canada. »
“Since becoming an employee of the Ministry of National Defense, Mr. Yeo has honored this agreement, has had no involvement in the management or operations of Dalian, and has not had access to any confidential information of Dalian” , adds the company.
She points out that he had also made a declaration of conflict of interest to the Ministry of National Defense, had resigned from his position as director and manager of Dalian and that he placed the shares of the company he held in a blind trust.
During his testimony to the Government Operations Committee in October 2023 on his participation in the development ofArriveCAN, Mr. Yeo still ran for president of Dalian. He then made no mention of his new position as a civil servant at National Defense or of the measures put in place to avoid any conflict of interest.
Dalian received 8 million in contracts for ArriveCANaccording to a devastating report from the Auditor General on cost overruns for the application.
Dalian’s security clearance was suspended until further notice last week by the Ministry of Public Services and Supply after it became aware of Mr Yeo’s duplication. This means that the company finds itself completely excluded from the contract award process. This suspension also affects the joint venture it is forming with Coradix Technology Consulting to obtain contracts reserved for Aboriginal people. Mr. Yeo is a member of Alderville First Nation, Ontario.
In its statement, Dalian notes that a recent audit launched by the Ministry of Indigenous Services confirmed that the company meets the criteria of the Indigenous Business Procurement Strategy.
She also reviews Mr. Yeo’s career in the Canadian Armed Forces for 14 years, from 1987 to 2001, and in the Reserves for ten years, from 2001 to 2011. These dates do not agree with those provided by the Ministry of Defense. National Defense nor with his testimony in parliamentary committee. The Department maintains that he served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 29 years, from 1987 to 2016.
“During my 36-year career in the Canadian Armed Forces, which included deployments to Afghanistan and the Middle East, I have been required to demonstrate the highest levels of integrity and, of course, I continue to behave in this way today,” Mr. Yeo told elected officials in October.
The Dalian statement noted his deployments to Cyprus and Afghanistan and described him as a tactical security specialist. “From August to November 2010, Mr. Yeo was deployed to Afghanistan as a contractor for the Department of National Defense to provide high assurance security capability to forward operating bases. His team received a commendation from the commander for their work,” underlines the company.
She notes that he founded Dalian in 2002, a hardware, software and cybersecurity company, with the Government of Canada as its main client.
The statement made no mention of the two companies opened by Mr Yeo in tax havens.