“There’s no question, it’s evident that the government knew, it’s clear that they aided and abetted this accelerated procurement, there is no question,” University of Ottawa professor Philippe Lagassé told The Hill Times after the Commons Public Accounts Committee held a special meeting to begin the inquiry, with the opposition parties accusing the government attempting to cover up mismanagement of the F-35 project.
Prof. Lagassé, an expert on defence procurement and acquisition systems and policies, is on a tentative list of witnesses the NDP wants to call for hearings into Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s scathing report on the F-35 project released earlier this month.
But NDP MP Malcolm Allen (Welland, Ont.) and Liberal MP Gerry Byrne (Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte, Nfld.) said it’s unlikely the government will accept opposition choices for witnesses, after Conservative MPs rejected a list of witnesses from Mr. Byrne on Thursday.
The two opposition MPs said the ranking Conservative MP on the panel, Andrew Saxton (Vancouver North, B.C.), revealed the Conservative agenda when he told the committee that the government is ready to call deputy ministers of the departments involved, but lower-level officials, likely including project managers, would be selected by deputy ministers.
The Conservatives also voted down an NDP motion that would ensured when the inquiry’s witness selection takes place next week, the meetings will remain public.
“I would like to assure you that the witnesses that the government would be certainly happy to bring forward to support would be the auditor general, of course, the Parliamentary budget officer, deputy ministers and who deputy ministers would like to bring along, it’s their decision,” Mr. Saxton, Parliamentary secretary for Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) told the committee during two hours of debate over witnesses’ motions and scheduling for the inquiry.
The statement infuriated Mr. Byrne, who later accused the Conservative MPs of following orders from Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) and his Cabinet over witness selection, and comparing the witness stonewalling to the infamous Republican Party Watergate scandal, over attempts to cover up a low-level burglary of Democratic Party offices in Washington, which sparked impeachment proceedings against former president Richard Nixon and led to his resignation.
“Quite frankly, this is a cover-up in the making,” Mr. Byrne, who was chastised in the committee meeting by Mr. Saxton, who accused Mr. Byrne of attempting to “dictate” witnesses to the committee.
“All the president’s men sat at that table just a few minutes ago and all the president’s men made sure that the Prime Minister was protected,” Mr. Byrne said, referring to the title of a book, All The President’s Men, that was written about the Watergate scandal by the two Washington Post reporters who disclosed the Republican wrongdoing.
Mr. Byrne recalled a statement by Mr. Ferguson after an earlier appearance at the House Public Accounts Committee, when he told journalists cabinet, the “executive,” would have known about spiralling costs of the F-35 project and delays under its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin of the U.S., that have delayed the eventual production of the stealth fighter by a decade.
“Let’s be straightforward about this, the government is blaming bureaucrats for not telling them the truth, when the auditor general said the information did indeed flow to the executive of the government. If it flowed to Cabinet ministers, it flowed to the Prime Minister, and the reason we’re not seeing resignations or firings at the front bench is because if the prime minister of Canada fires any of his front bench, he ultimately has to fire himself,” Mr. Byrne said.
Mr. Allen, who at one point during the meeting criticized both Mr. Byrne and the government MPs for arguing over the process of selecting witnesses, nonetheless agreed after the hearing that the government is intent on protecting top officials and Cabinet ministers.
“The first order of business [when the committee convenes again next Tuesday] is you’ll see Andrew Saxton shoot his hand up as fast as he possibly can and say, ‘Mr. chair, I move we go in camera,’” Mr. Allen said. “They are looking to try to control the witness list. This is about trying to control the message, this is a political dynamic. There’s a political piece at play here, which members of the executive knew what when.”
Prof. Lagassé told The Hill Timesit is inconceivable Mr. Harper, Defence Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.) and the other senior Cabinet ministers were unaware of the details revealed in Mr. Ferguson’s report.
They included findings by Mr. Ferguson that in the lead-up to the government’s announcement in July, 2010, that it intended to buy a fleet of 65 F-35 fighters that “key decisions were made without required approvals or supporting documentation.”
Among other things, National Defence did not provide Public Works, the procuring department, with some of the required information for a procurement decision until a month after the decision to purchase the jets was announced. In place of a detailed statement of operational requirements the F-35 met, Public Works accepted a one-page letter from National Defence that it met the operational needs.
Prof. Lagassé said none of that could have happened without Cabinet or ministerial approval.
“To be able to get through, to get Industry [Canada] to quiet down about the IRBs [Industrial and Regional Benefits], to get Public Works to just accept that letter, to get TBS [Treasury Board Secretariat] to accept this and to make it through Cabinet, there is no question that the government was complicit in this, and this is something they accepted,” he said.
Mr. Ferguson disclosed that in March, 2010, just prior to the federal general election, while National Defence publicly claimed the F-35 project would cost $14.7-billion over the lifetime of the aircraft, its internal estimates showed a cost totalling $25-billion, including contingency and operating and personnel costs that were omitted from the public the department released publicly.
Mr. Byrne’s failed witness list called for testimony from Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Page, as well as these government and military officials:
· - Dan Ross, assistant deputy minister (materiel), National Defence.
· - Lt.-Gen. J.P.A. Deschamps, chief of the air staff, National Defence.
· - Michael J. Slack, F-35 project manager, director of continental materiel co-operation, National Defence.
· - Col. D.C. Burt, director, new generation fighter capability, National Defence.
· - Tom Ring, assistant deputy minister, acquisitions branch, Public Works and Government Services Canada.
· - Johanne Provencher, director general, defence and major projects directorate, Public Works and Government Services Canada.
· - Richard Dicerni, deputy minister, Industry Canada.
· - Craig Morris, deputy director, F-35 industrial participation, Industry Canada.
The tentative NDP witness list included these military and government officials and other experts:
· - Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of the defence staff.
· - Robert Fonberg, deputy minister of defence.
· - Alan Williams, former assistant deputy minister (materiel), National Defence, who has criticized the F-35 process.
· - Jerome Berthelette, the assistant auditor general who was the lead on the F-35 study.
· - An assistant deputy minister of National Defence referred to in documents as P. Lessard, who raised concerns in 2010 over the program’s assessment as "low risk."
· - François Guimont, deputy minister of public works.
· - Prof. Lagassé.
· - Josée Touchette, assistant deputy minister (public affairs), National Defence.
Original Article
Source: Hill Times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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