Bad 'optics' force Tories to cancel untendered contract
Former Tory consultant was hired to work on much-hyped ethics plan   


Published: Friday, April 07, 2006 
Glen McGregor, The Ottawa Citizen
 
 
Citing bad "optics" as it prepares its package of ethics reforms, the Harper government cancelled
 an untendered contract for advice on the Federal Accountability Act awarded to a consultant who 
worked with the Conservative transition team.

Marie-Josee Lapointe, who was an aide to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, was hired by 
the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to perform strategic communications work on the 
proposed accountability law, which will be introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Treasury Board President John Baird yesterday told the House that he acted as soon as his office 
was asked about her contract by the Citizen last week.

"The moment that my political staff and I learned of this contract it was immediately terminated," 
Mr. Baird said.

"I'm the minister and the buck stops with me, and the minister wasn't happy about it when he 
learned about it from a reporter," he said later.

The sudden decision to terminate a contract for clearly political reasons is sure to chill 
Conservative consultants and lobbyists hoping to benefit from their connections to the new 
government.

For three weeks in February, Ms. Lapointe volunteered as spokeswoman for the small team of 
Conservative strategists who helped arrange the installation of the Harper government.

The team was charged with helping select the cabinet and hire staff for ministers' offices, among 
other duties.

The legislation on which Ms. Lapointe worked for Treasury Board promises a broad range of 
ethics reforms and will, according to the party's policy platform, ensure the awarding of 
government contracts is free from political interference.

Mr. Baird says that political considerations did not factor into his department's decision to hire 
Ms. Lapointe.

"No political actor was involved in the contract," Mr. Baird said yesterday. "I think the optics are 
very bad given the timeline, so when it was brought to our attention, I thought it was best to 
terminate it."

Ms. Lapointe had completed about half the work she was asked to do, according to the Treasury 
Board. She had been paid $12,600 plus GST at the point the contract was ended. The value had 
been capped at $25,000 -- the maximum that can be awarded without going through a competitive 
tendering process.

Ms. Lapointe contends there was nothing political about the contract and says it was the same 
sort of work she has been doing for the government for years. But she allowed that the 
government was entitled to cancel the contract whenever it wished.

"It's well within their prerogative and I don't have a problem with that at all," she said. "The quality 
of my work is not being questioned."

Liberal MP Mark Holland said it wasn't until Mr. Baird had his hand "caught in the cookie jar" that 
he decided to change his mind. He called the award of an untendered contract for ethics reforms 
a "tremendous irony" and said Mr. Baird's claim that he didn't know about it earlier was hard to 
believe.

"There was absolutely no way that they did not know this person had been hired to review the 
accountability act," he said. "A soon as the minister knew he was caught, he tried to bury it."

NDP ethics critic Pat Martin said he was pleased to see Mr. Baird act quickly, but said he was 
concerned that contracting practices established by the Liberals appear to be continuing.

"It is going to take a lot of political courage to nip those in the bud," he said.

He said it took "unmitigated gall" for the Liberals to complain about untendered contracts.

Under prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, Liberal-friendly firms were repeatedly 
accused of trading on their connections to the government to win lucrative communications 
consulting work.

Ms. Lapointe worked in Mr. Mulroney's press office and as press secretary to Tory cabinet 
minister Benoit Bouchard. She later became director of communications for the Canadian 
Tobacco Manufacturers' Council and the City of Ottawa before joining Ottawa-based 
G-4 Strategic Communications.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2006
  
 
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