By Rebel News | Created at 2024-10-29 22:30:31 | Updated at 2024-10-30 05:30:44
10 hours ago
ArriveCan emails were destroyed by the Canada Border Services Agency only days after they were sought under the Access To Information Act, records show. The Act forbids deliberate destruction of records under a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
On February 27, 2023, Minh Doan, then-chief information officer for the Agency, claimed technical difficulties with his government-issued laptop led to the accidental deletion of emails concerning ArriveCan, the pandemic surveillance application.
Four days prior, Doan was told of the Information request for “all records of communication” with a contractor now under police investigation for fraudulent billing. “Please do a search,” Doan was told prior to the weekend, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.
The Access To Information Act section 67.1.1 states: “No person with intent to deny a right of access under this Act shall destroy, mutilate or alter a record.” The maximum penalty is a $10,000 fine and two years in jail.
Doan in June 5 testimony said he destroyed his laptop files by accident. “I lost all my data,” he said. “I had to change laptops.”
ArriveCan managers miraculously uncovered thousands of previously “deleted” emails involving business with contractors now under RCMP investigation. It provided 1,806 pages of correspondence to the Commons government operations committee.
That contrasts October 22 testimony which detailed those emails were gone without a trace.
Conservative MPs pushed for access to thousands of records and text messages tied to the executive, who oversaw ArriveCan, the flawed $60 million health-travel surveillance app. It was mostly sourced to GC Strategies, a two-man IT firm whose office the RCMP raided on April 16.
Committee members on June 5 described Doan’s account as implausible for a chief technology officer. “You are very good at telling lies,” said MP Brock.
Doan previously said allegations of him hiding evidence were categorically false. “I needed to change my laptop because the battery on my current one was failing,” he said.
“When transferring files from my old computer to my new one, files were corrupted and the emails were lost. I personally reported this to my team.”
“Were you keeping Government of Canada emails on your local folder drive and thousands of emails all of a sudden got corrupted?” asked Liberal MP Majid Jowhari. “No,” replied Doan.
“How many emails were there?” asked Liberal MP Parm Bains. “I couldn’t tell you,” replied Doan.
“What are you hiding?” asked MP Brock. “I have nothing to hide,” replied Doan.
Evidence uncovered to date show sole-sourced ArriveCan contracts made millionaires of GC Strategies’ two partners. ArriveCan profits for the small business totaled some $2.5 million.
The firm billed at the equivalent of $2,600 an hour for consulting work on the application. It subcontracted all IT work for a 30% commission.
“We invoiced monthly,” Kristian Firth, managing partner at GC Strategies, told MPs April 17. “At any time we could have been stopped.”
Evidence uncovered to date indicated GC Strategies was a preferred supplier. The company bought meals and drinks for CBSA managers, the public accounts committee was told.
The firm received a total 118 federal contracts from various departments with payments totaling $107.7 million.
Auditor General Karen Hogan in a February 7 ArriveCan report said numerous rules were broken.
“The bookkeeping I looked at is the worst I have seen,” Hogan testified February 12 at the Commons public accounts committee. “We paid too much for this.”
“Was it efficient and provided good value for money? That’s where I would tell you no,” said Hogan. “The government has paid too much.”
She announced an audit of GC Strategies last week.
Alex Dhaliwal
Calgary Based Journalist
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
