OTTAWA – A report quietly released by the federal Auditor General last Friday — two hours before a long weekend — found that more than $900 million in government contracts were awarded on a non-competitive, sole-source basis to firms with registered lobbyists who have direct ties to the Liberal Party of Canada. The contracts, spanning departments including Infrastructure Canada, Health Canada, and the National Defence Supply Chain, were awarded between 2019 and 2023 without any public tender process and, in dozens of cases, with internal approval forms signed after the work had already begun.
Among the most striking findings: a $47 million communications contract awarded to a firm whose principal partner attended the Prime Minister’s fundraiser circuit on five occasions, a $112 million IT modernization deal given to a company that registered its lobbyists six days after the contract was signed, and a $34 million consulting agreement for a pandemic preparedness review that, according to the report, produced no deliverables and was never followed up on. The Auditor General noted that departmental procurement officers flagged concerns in writing in at least 38 cases, but were overruled by senior officials whose identities were redacted from the public version of the report.
Treasury Board president responded to the findings by saying the government ‘takes procurement integrity seriously’ and announcing the creation of a new internal working group that will have 18 months to provide preliminary recommendations on potential reforms to sole-source thresholds. When asked whether any of the contracts would be clawed back, a spokesperson said that would be ‘legally complex.’ The opposition demanded an emergency House committee hearing; the government used its majority to vote down the motion. The full Auditor General’s report is available on the OAG website, and has been downloaded 214 times. The government’s press release announcing its response has been shared 8,000 times on official Liberal Party social media channels.