Feb 14th, 2004, 09:56
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Banned
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Feb. 14, 2004. 08:20 AM Martin promises answers, action Guilty will `pay the consequences,' PM says Fraser gives list of possible inquiry witnesses to MPs BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH OTTAWA BUREAU BROCKVILLE―Prime Minister Paul Martin has vowed to find "every single answer" in the sponsorship scandal and punish those responsible. "We're going to get to the bottom of this," he told reporters yesterday. "I am very, very angry ... Our government takes full responsibility for finding out the facts. Let me tell you that anybody who has transgressed in this particular matter is going to pay the consequences," Martin said. It was Martin's first foray outside Ottawa since the release on Tuesday of Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's scathing report on misuse of public funds in the government's sponsorship program from 1997 to 2001. After attending the funeral in Montreal for former Quebec Liberal leader Claude Ryan, Martin flew here to meet local municipal leaders. His comments came on a day when Fraser provided the Commons public accounts committee with the names of former or serving ministers and senior bureaucrats who could be potential witnesses in the judicial inquiry called by Martin following the release of her report. Meanwhile, Chrétien loyalists vowed to fight back against implications made by people close to Martin that the former prime minister is to blame for the abuse of funds outlined by Fraser. "We're not going to take this lying down," said one senior Liberal close to Chrétien. Chrétien returned to Ottawa yesterday from China, where he was on a private business trip. Sources close to him say that over the weekend, he is weighing whether to respond to Martin's suggestion that people in the former prime minister's inner circle gave "political direction" to those who abused the public trust in the scandal. Yesterday, Martin sought to dampen speculation that the scandal has revived bitter divisions within the party between his loyalists and Chrétien's followers. "The leadership race is over. I take responsibility for dealing with this issue. I'm going to deal with it," Martin said. He denied there's a civil war brewing in the Liberal ranks. "I don't know a Liberal that doesn't want to get to the bottom of this. Liberals want to know what happened. Canadians want to know what happened. I want to know what happen," Martin said. In a television interview, Martin said that cleaning up the controversy is an unexpected burden on his agenda. "But it is now my agenda to deal with it and I'm going to deal with it," he said in an interview to air tomorrow on CTV's Question Period. The names on the list that Fraser sent to the public accounts committee include Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, as well as former ministers Alfonso Gagliano, Don Boudria and David Dingwall ― now president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. They were cited only by title in her report, which documented how $100 million was siphoned to Liberal-friendly advertising firms. Gagliano, who was public works minister in charge of the sponsorship program, was fired by Martin as Canada's ambassador to Denmark on Tuesday. He had been appointed to the post by Chrétien in 2002 after he was demoted from cabinet following allegations of patronage. The list implies no wrongdoing, only that people may appear as witnesses before the inquiry. Martin has said he'll testify if necessary. Also named yesterday were Jim Judd, secretary of the Treasury Board; Ran Quail, former deputy minister of public works who oversaw the sponsorship program; Pierre Tremblay and Chuck Guité, former directors of the sponsorship program; Guy McKenzie, executive director of Communications Canada; Marc LeFran?ois, president of VIA Rail; and Christina Sirsly, a VIA Rail vice-president. Fraser said she plans to release next week another list of people who authorized sponsorship transactions involving departments and crown corporations. So far, at least 14 public works officials have been disciplined and the RCMP is investigating 16 sponsorship contracts. In her report, Fraser revealed that several crown corporations ― including VIA Rail and Canada Post ― were involved in suspect money transactions. The RCMP has handed a portion of the criminal probe to the Quebec provincial police to avoid any hint of conflict, the Mounties said yesterday. But the RCMP insists it was never investigating itself, even though the force received money from the sponsorship program for its 125th anniversary celebrations. Martin was pressed about reports that he was warned about the problems in the program two years ago, while he was still finance minister. In a February, 2002, letter, Akaash Maharaj, former Liberal party policy chief, urged Martin to probe rumours that money from the program was being used for "partisan purposes," according to a newspaper report yesterday. But Martin said that letter, which he said he can't remember receiving, confirms what he told a news conference Thursday ― that rumours were flying about possible problems. "The letter is a classic example of the kind of thing that was happening. He's talking about rumours that were abounding and the fact is that rumours were abounding at that time. The letter confirms exactly what I said ... that there were rumours going around, there were newspaper articles going around." Fraser was called in soon after to probe three contracts and she reported that spring. With files from Robert Benzie, Tonda MacCharles and Canadian Press ++++++++++++++ 十佳堡,十佳人, 只保佳人不抓丁. |
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Feb 14th, 2004, 09:59
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Banned
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Feb. 13, 2004. 05:51 PM Finance minister may testify Ralph Goodale, Don Boudria could be called as witnesses by sponsorship scandal inquiry OTTAWA (CP) - Four former or serving ministers and a clutch of senior bureaucrats were named today by Auditor General Sheila Fraser as potential witnesses in the sponsorship scandal inquiry. Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, as well as former ministers Alfonso Gagliano, Don Boudria and David Dingwall - now president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint - were on the list sent by Fraser to the public accounts committee. They had previously been cited only by their title in her blockbuster scandal report released Tuesday, which documented how $100 million in federal money was siphoned to Liberal-friendly advertising firms. Fraser said she plans to release by early next week another list of people who authorized sponsorship transactions involving departments and Crown corporations. Also named today were Jim Judd, secretary of the Treasury Board; Ran Quail, former deputy minister of public works who oversaw the troubled sponsorship program; Pierre Tremblay and Chuck Guite, former directors of the sponsorship plan; Guy McKenzie, executive director of Communications Canada; Marc LeFrancois, president of Via Rail; and Christina Sirsly, a Via Rail vice-president. The list implies no wrongdoing, only that people may appear as witnesses before the inquiry investigating the whole sponsorship fiasco. Prime Minister Paul Martin has said he'll testify if necessary. The names surfaced as Martin repeated his pledge to get to the bottom of the scandal. "We are going to get every single answer to every single question," he said during a visit to Brockville, Ont. Fraser's second list of people who authorized transactions will help the committee, as well as a coming public inquiry called by Martin, to determine their witness lists, committee members said. John Williams, Conservative chair of the public accounts committee, said Gagliano will likely be an early witness. "He's been fingered prominently in the auditor general's report and she said yesterday that he involved himself personally in some particular contracts," he said. He said Boudria and Goodale could also help shed light on the scandal by telling the committee what they knew and when. Others he said he would like to see appear include LeFrancois and Sirsly of Via Rail. But Williams said the list issued today was just the beginning of expected revelations from the auditor general, who he expects will lay out a money trail, including the names of those who signed the cheques. Fraser will appear again at committee next Thursday, along with officials from Treasury Board, Privy Council and Public Works, who will be asked to explain why and how the scandal went unchecked for nearly five years. In her report, Fraser singled out LeFrancois for criticism in a complex deal that saw Via put up $910,000 in 1998 to sponsor a television series on hockey legend Maurice Richard. The passenger rail corporation had previously refused to get involved in funding the series. It changed course after LeFrancois spoke personally to Guite, then the federal bureaucrat in charge of sponsorship deals. Guite and Tremblay are also likely to be called. Guite, now retired, didn't return phone calls today. Tremblay is on a medical leave of absence from his job at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Martin got tough Thursday, saying anyone involved in the scandal should resign immediately, or face being rooted out. "Simply put, they will answer for their actions," he said at a news conference. Union officials and opposition MPs warned that such a threat, particularly in the absence of federal whistleblower protection, has sent a chill through government ranks that may defeat Martin's purpose. "I don't think we should be jumping all over everybody until we know all of the facts," said John Gordon, national executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. New Democrat MP Pat Martin called for amnesty for any public servants coming forward. But an aide to the prime minister assured the innocent have nothing to fear. "This is not a witch hunt." Martin has blamed not only a small group of bureaucrats - whom he referred to as "the mechanics in all this" - but on their political masters. On Tuesday, Fraser released a report that found Liberal-friendly firms got $100 million in commissions and fees under the $250-million sponsorship program, often for doing little or no work. The Chrétien government created the program to put the Canadian flag on display at events in Quebec in the wake of the near-catastrophic 1995 sovereignty referendum. Fraser's report points to 12 to15 people in the Public Works Department who allegedly engineered phoney contracts and helped middlemen skim off lucrative commissions over five years. Opposition MPs attacked the government for a fourth straight day today, charging that Martin must have been incompetent not to have known about the wrongdoing. Their ammunition came from a letter written by a senior Liberal party official in February 2002 urging Martin, then the finance minister, to investigate rumours that federal money was being improperly funnelled through the sponsorship program for "partisan purposes." Martin, in Brockville, said the letter was just another rumour he heard at the time. "It's exactly what I was saying yesterday when I talked about rumours that were circulating." Goodale, fielding questions in Martin's absence from the Commons, acknowledged that "the gravity of the situation began to emerge in the early part of 2002." Fraser investigated early that year and released an initial report in April. Goodale noted that the government subsequently froze the program, fired some ad firms and co-operated fully with Fraser ++++++++++++++ 十佳堡,十佳人, 只保佳人不抓丁. |
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