The three-and-a-half-year-long investigation by the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) into leaks at the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC) has cost more than $9 million so far, according to reports and sources. figures obtained by The Press under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The clock continues to tick as thousands of seized documents still need to be obtained and analyzed by BEI investigators, and officials say they hope the case will be submitted to prosecutors before the end of the year.
Begun in October 2018, the BEI’s investigation, called Oath, focuses on the media leaks that have occurred at UPAC since 2012 and on the way in which UPAC conducted its investigation into the leaks of sensitive documents from the Mâchurer project – on the financing of the Liberal Party of Quebec – which resulted in the arrest of MP Guy Ouellette in October 2017 without charge.
Nearly $7 million in salaries
According to figures obtained from the EIB under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information, up to seven of its investigators have been assigned to Project Oath, for a total payroll of 3.3 million between the end of 2018 and the start of 2022.
During the same period, the investigators also accumulated hundreds of remunerative overtime hours worked – up to 1740 hours in 2020-2021 – totaling $224,000.
The BEI also paid, in miscellaneous expenses (rental and fitting out of premises, office automation services, vehicle rental, cell phone costs, parking and travel expenses, etc.), at least $680,000 in addition to three years.
And he pays 1 million to the firm Ernst & Young for its role in sorting tens of thousands of documents seized from UPAC, the Sûreté du Québec, the National Assembly and the deputy Guy Ouellette which could be covered by the privilege and which are the subject of applications to the courts.
For its part, the Quebec Ministry of Public Security provided The Press expenditure figures totaling more than 3.5 million just for its investigators assigned to the Oath project, while the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) replied to us that three or four prosecutors were assigned, at one time or another other, to the investigation of the BEI.
These prosecutors have not necessarily worked full-time on the investigation since 2018, except for one who has worked on it more intensively. The annual salary of a Serious Crime and Special Affairs Bureau prosecutor is approximately $150,000.
By adding up all the numbers given to The Presswe therefore arrive, for the expenses generated by the Oath investigation, at a figure that exceeds 9 million, but this sum does not include other expenses, such as those related to the work of prosecutors representing the Ministry of Justice (Procureur General of Quebec) during certain proceedings or the fees of private lawyers who accompanied witnesses during meetings with BEI investigators.
The bill could therefore be even higher than 9 million.
136 witnesses and 1.8 million documents
How much longer will the counter roll for this survey which will be four years old next October?
“What we are aiming for is that the final report be submitted to the DPCP in December of this year”, wishes Mand Robert Rouleau, number 2 of the BEI.
According to Mand Rouleau, 136 witnesses were met by the investigators – the last in January –, some of whom more than once, for a total of more than 180 meetings.
The investigators will have had to analyze 1.8 million documents, of which tens of thousands are still the subject of requests before the courts – “which are however coming to an end”, assures Mand Roller.
He recalls the importance of this investigation into leaks that led to the arrest of an MNA, the departure of the chief of the largest police force in Quebec, Martin Prud’homme, and a halt in the judicial process. in the case of former Quebec Deputy Premier Nathalie Normandeau and her co-defendants.
“The time required for the investigation is commensurate with the importance of the mandate entrusted to us. It is a broad and difficult mandate. It is a first, to my knowledge, that such a mandate has been entrusted to an investigative body.
“The nature of the mandate, the importance of the investigation, the number of witnesses to meet, the number of judicial authorizations to obtain, the number of documents to collect, filter and process, the steps of the media aimed at making a party public evidence at the same time as there is an investigation to protect… If we add all that up, we should not be surprised that it took a certain time, ”defends Mand Roller.
Four years and no accused?
About 280,000 documents seized from the servers of UPAC and the Sûreté du Québec relate to two former UPAC officials, Inspector André Boulanger and Lieutenant Caroline Grenier-Lafontaine, who led the Project A investigation during from which Guy Ouellette was arrested.
According to our information, neither these two police officers, who claim their innocence, nor the former commissioner of UPAC Robert Lafrenière have yet been met by BEI investigators, and it is not known if they ever will.
Once the Oath investigation is complete and its findings are on the DPCP’s desk, the latter should take some time to analyze the evidence and decide – likely in 2023 – whether charges will be brought against certain actors or not.
But already, observers and sources believe that will not be the case.
“I will not put myself in the shoes of the DPCP, with whom the collaboration is excellent. My job is not to do futurology on what I think the DPCP will do. We, our mandate, is to shed light, to get to the bottom of things, to turn every rock over, to take it all and make it into a digestible and intelligible whole. Everyone has their own job and the cows will be well looked after,” concludes Ms.and Roller.
With the collaboration of William Leclerc, The Press
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.