Transport ministers must resign over contracting issue: PQ

The opposition Parti Qubecois is demanding the resignation of Transport Minister Julie Boulet and junior transport minister Norman MacMillan after Quebec's auditor general found irregularities in their ministry's awarding of construction contracts.

After analyzing 191 contracts worth $209 million, Renaud Lachance said "in many instances, the management of the examined contracts, from the standpoint of the risks taken into account, is unsatisfactory in relation to the rules and procedures as well as to sound management practices."

In a report tabled Wednesday at the national assembly, Lachance said the Transport Ministry has known since 2004 that contractors were conspiring to eliminate competition in calls for tender for publicconstruction projects, but nothing was done to correct the situation.

In 2004, ministry officials obtained the results of an internal investigation that revealed a case of flagrant collusion regarding snow removal contracts. But rather than handing the report over to police or the federal Competition Bureau, the report was shelved, Lachance said.

The bureau didnt obtain the report until 2006, when it requested a copy of the document while investigating a complaint.

Questionable contracts

The auditor also pointed to 20 contractsthat were awarded without a call for tender for "questionable" reasons and another 17 contractsin whichonly one bidder came forward. Lachance said the department made no attempt to contact other suppliers who had obtained the tender documents to find out why they had not submitted a bid.

"When you go for a call for tenders, and there is only one bidder you should ask yourself, 'Why do I only have one proposition?'" Lachance said.

In 23 files where the amount of the bid exceeded the government's estimates by more than 10 per cent, Lachance said the explanations of the discrepancy provided to the departments authorities were sometimes brief or even non-existent.

The auditor also identified one contract in which the Treasury Board had selecteda certaincompany but later opted for asphalting company ABC Rive-Nord instead, which is owned in part by former labour minister David Whissell.

Lachance called on the ministry to "show more initiative to tighten its procedures, have more accurate information and improve its analysis capacity in order to ensure a sound management of public funds."

Boulet said she had already ordered ministry officials to tighten the rules concerning bidding. She said 10 of the auditor's 18 recommendations have already been implemented.

But PQ leader Pauline Marois said that is not good enough.She accused the Liberal government of turning a blind eye to potential collusion and corruption in the provinces construction industry.

Auditor critical of PPPs

The only way to know just how deep the problem runs is to hold a public inquiry, Marois said.

In his report, the auditor was also critical of the governments decision to employ the public-private partnership model of financing in the building of Montreal's two new university hospital complexes, the Centre hospitalier de l'Universit de Montral (CHUM) and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).

Lachance said co-operation with the private sector offers no additional guarantees to prevent cost overruns. What's more, public-private partnership contracts could generate unjustified maintenance costs for the two facilities, the audit said.