Canada.com- Ottawa Citizen
Tim Naumetz, The Ottawa CitizenPublished: Tuesday, June 12, 2007
A deputy commissioner of the RCMP who still serves as the force's chief financial officer came under scathing attack from MPs yesterday after admitting he did not raise the alarm about a bureaucrat at the centre of contractual wrongdoing in the RCMP pension office. Deputy Commissioner Paul Gauvin also came under fire for attempting to delay the Access to Information release of 1,000 pages of former Mountie commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli's expense accounts -- including a tab for a glass of cognac that cost $80 -- and possibly interfering in access documents about the pension-fund affair that included a reference to himself. MPs from all parties on the Commons public accounts committee were incensed after Deputy Commissioner Gauvin disclosed he did not warn Public Works about Dominic Crupi, a former director of the branch that managed the pension fund's insurance plan after he recommended the department in charge of the plan withdraw Mr. Crupi's authority to sign contracts.
After learning Mr. Crupi had approved sole-source contracts vastly exceeding the value he was authorized to approve, Deputy Commissioner Gauvin told the force's human resources department to transfer Mr. Crupi to a branch of the Public Works Department that was taking over the contracting work. But he told the committee he did not inform the Public Works Department that Mr. Crupi -- who escaped internal discipline in the affair because of delays investigating the pension fiasco -- had handed out contracts improperly. Furthermore, he said he gave only a verbal order to take away Mr. Crupi's contracting authority and did not put anything in writing. Mr. Crupi went on to approve $6 million worth of contracts, many to computer consultants with whom he and other officials had become cozy during their years in the public service. Deputy Commissioner Gauvin was a senior aide to former Liberal solicitor general Andy Scott, once in charge of the Mounties, before the RCMP named him chief financial officer.
"Don't you think this was dereliction of duty?" Conservative MP John Williams, his voice rising, asked Deputy Commissioner Gauvin. "Hindsight is 20-20," Deputy Commissioner Gauvin replied, quickly adding "No, I don't think so. I did my job and I did it well." The deputy commissioner explained, at the time, he was unaware "we had a corrupt guy" handling the pension insurance contracts and defended himself also on grounds he was responsible for the entire force, all 26,000 members. "I don't care if you've got 126,000 people, you're the deputy commissioner and you carry the can," Mr. Williams retorted, adding Deputy Commissioner Gauvin should not continue to be chief financial officer for the RCMP. Deputy Commissioner Gauvin also pleaded he expected the Public Works Department had safeguards in place to monitor Mr. Crupi and he did not know Mr. Crupi would take part in "collusion" with other members of the Public Works branch handling the Mountie contracts.
The committee also heard testimony from a superintendent formerly in charge of the RCMP Access to Information Office who said Deputy Commissioner Gauvin attempted to interfere in the release of information about Mr. Zaccardelli's expense accounts over a three-year period. Superintendent Christian Picard said he was called to a meeting in Mr. Zaccardelli's board room, where he met three officers, including Deputy Commissioner Gauvin, who handed Supt. Picard a synopsis of the voluminous expense account statements and told him "those (the synopsis) are the documents that go out." Supt. Picard said he placed the synopsis on top of the expense accounts and told Deputy Commissioner Gauvin all the documents would be released.The superintendent also claimed that, after he resisted RCMP opposition to release other sensitive reports, he found he had no position waiting for him on return from an assignment abroad and simply stayed at home for lack of a duty. "I fought epic battles against senior managers," Supt. Picard said at the beginning of his testimony. "When I joined the RCMP, I swore to apply the law and I swore to uphold the law." Deputy Commissioner Gauvin told the committee he did not intend to prevent the release of Mr. Zaccardelli's expense accounts, but merely wanted to release the synopsis while the force screened the expense statements to ensure nothing was left out. "All we were attempting to do was get something out quick, which was a summary, and check records," he said. Deputy Commissioner Gauvin told the committee he has since repaid the pension fund money for free golf games that had been written off as business expenses within the office, as have six others who took the perks.
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