(Québec) Québec solidaire (QS) asks the Auditor General to deepen her investigation into discretionary loans granted by the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon
The opposition did not hesitate Thursday to speak of “favoritism” of the minister.
On Wednesday, the Auditor General, Guylaine Leclerc, revealed that at least 10 companies in difficulty were able to obtain loans from Quebec totaling 68 million during the pandemic, even if they did not meet all the criteria.
The Auditor General’s team studied only 22 loans from the Temporary Concerted Action Program for Enterprises (PACTE), so nearly half of the cases studied revealed irregularities. QS therefore asks the Auditor General to seek a larger sample.
In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, QS spokesperson Ruba Ghazal calls for “further analysis”.
According to her, there was “clearly unfair treatment and lack of uniformity and this is unacceptable”, we can read.
From the start of the health crisis, Quebec reserved 3 billion in public funds for two temporary assistance programs for companies facing a lack of liquidity linked to the pandemic: the PACTE and the Emergency Assistance Program for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. (PALM).
The management of the program created and managed by Mr. Fitzgibbon, to support companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, was not adequate and lacked transparency, noted the auditor in her report.
A clause in the PACTE’s internal management guide provided that Minister Fitzgibbon granted himself the power to adjust the terms of the program “according to the needs of the files”. It could therefore, in principle, provide financial assistance to companies that did not qualify for this program. And that’s what has happened, at least a dozen times.