OTTAWA - Former public safety minister Anne McLellan says she followed all the bureaucratic rules when an RCMP whistleblower complained three years ago about mismanagement of the force's pension fund -- but she never took the matter up personally with then-commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli.
Instead, McLellan told the Commons public accounts committee Monday, she delegated her chief of staff to speak to the country's top cop. When Zaccardelli said the matter was being handed over to Ottawa municipal police for further investigation, the minister decided to let things take their course.
"I felt the independent investigation would get to many of the concerns identified,'' said McLellan. "I was satisfied with the process followed to deal with this matter.''
Pressed later by reporters, McLellan continued to insist there was no reason for her to speak directly to Zaccardelli. The probe by Ottawa police had been preceded by other investigations within the RCMP, she noted, and the situation seemed to be well in hand.
"There was an internal audit, there was a corrective action plan put in place, and I had no reason to believe that the corrective action was not sufficient at that time.''
Reg Alcock, then McLellan's Liberal cabinet colleague as president of Treasury Board, the government's chief financial watchdog, also avoided direct involvement after Staff Sgt. Ron Lewis handed over a package of material in early 2004 outlining his concerns about the pension fund.
"Those documents were delivered, discussions were held,'' said Alcock, whose main role appeared to be to pass the material on to McLellan, the line minister responsible for the Mounties.
Lewis, who has since retired, was a staff representative for rank-and-file officers and one of the first to raise questions about the pension fund. He has been critical of the hands-off attitude adopted by the Liberal ministers of the day.
Another of Lewis's targets, RCMP chief financial officer Paul Gauvin, also defended himself Monday -- and in the process suggested the dispute reflects a prejudice among some uniformed officers against civilian employees of the force.
"A small and vocal minority are opposed to civilians playing any role in the management of the RCMP and will go to extremes to discredit civilians' valuable contributions,'' said Gauvin.
"It is not only detrimental to the working environment of this great organization, it undermines the traditional trusting relationship that should normally exist between and among managers and employees''
Gauvin, although he holds the rank of deputy commissioner, is not a Mountie by training but a veteran public servant who came to the force from the Transport Department.
In his testimony Monday, he firmly rejected suggestions that, as chief financial officer, he didn't exercise proper control of operations. He said adequate rules were in place but were circumvented by others who "colluded'' to funnel consulting contracts to favoured people and firms in the private sector.
Gauvin pointed the finger, in particular, at Dominic Crupi, a senior civilian executive with the force who resigned following an internal audit into his actions in 2004.
Crupi's personal authority to sign contracts had already been removed after an earlier investigation, said Gauvin. But he then made an end-run around RCMP rules by going to Consulting and Audit Canada, a federal agency that arranges outside contracts for the government.
"He found somebody there, in terms of collusion, that worked with him,'' said Gauvin. "A lot of contracts were given out . . . that were not properly tendered and went directly to certain individuals.''
Yet another audit in 2005 by KPMG, one of the country's leading accounting firms, found evidence that rules were broken to avoid competitive bids. It also appeared that some contract recipients did little to earn their fees, merely passing the work on to other subcontractors.
The roughly 30 RCMP contracts studied by KPMG were among a larger sample that went through Consulting and Audit Canada, most of them handled by an official named Frank Brazeau who has since been fired.
Two of the RCMP contracts went to Abotech, a computer consulting firm once headed by David Smith, a former Liberal MP for the Quebec riding of Pontiac. Smith sold the firm to his wife before running for Parliament.
Brazeau is a cousin of Smith and worked on his campaign to win the Liberal nomination in Pontiac. Both men have denied any wrongdoing, but the issue dogged Smith in the last federal election and he lost his seat to star Tory candidate Lawrence Cannon, now the federal transport minister.
Gauvin confirmed Monday that Brazeau was the man he had in mind when he referred to someone colluding with Crupi. He told MPs he didn't know anything, however, about any role played by Smith.
The pension controversy has been simmering since 2003 and has mushroomed into allegations of questionable conduct and coverup at the highest levels of the RCMP.
Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell, at committee hearings last week, accused Deputy Commissioner Barbara George of being involved in improper financial transactions and of kicking him off a team of investigators looking into the affair.
George has adamantly denied any wrongdoing and says she's sure her name will be cleared. She is suspended from duty pending further internal investigation.
Zaccardelli, who quit last December after coming under fire in the unrelated Maher Arar affair, has also denied any role in covering up wrongdoing.
Crupi was one of two RCMP civilian administrators who resigned during the course of the multiple investigations into the affair. The other was Jim Ewanovich who, like Crupi, has repeatedly denied that he did anything wrong.
