Feds deliberately withheld info on recycling costs, Ambrose told

OTTAWA — The Public Works and Government Services Department deliberately withheld information from taxpayers that cast doubt on its explanation about replacing quality workstations at an Environment Canada building with brand new furniture, officials told their minister, Rona Ambrose, in a newly released memorandum.

The department publicly claimed last summer that a controversial decision to replace workstations in the Gatineau, Que., building, under renovations, would be 20 per cent cheaper than recycling its existing assets. But it privately told Ambrose its strategy was "evolving" and that it had received an unsolicited bid from an Ottawa office supplies company for recycled furniture that would be $1,000 per workstation cheaper than its existing contract to buy new furniture, excluding some other direct and indirect costs.

"This information did not form part of the response to media questions as this quotation did not have any impact on the decision taken earlier in February 2011," Ambrose was told in a briefing note prepared by her department released through access to information legislation.

Ambrose said earlier this week that a minister should not be getting involved in the department's decisions about public contracts. The department follows strict guidelines in its competition process for contracts.

She also said the department has "excellent due diligence and excellent processes in place for oversight."

But Liberal MP David McGuinty, who wrote to the minister about the matter in July on behalf of a constituent in his Ottawa South riding expressing concerns about the decision to not recycle assets, said that Ambrose could have responded to the memo by promoting more transparency about the department's analysis while asking it to re-examine its overall procurement strategy and policies.

"Can somebody reasonably conclude that these numbers were censored (from the department's public statements) in order to protect the government's position?" McGuinty asked.

The department told Ambrose in the memo that it reviewed the unsolicited offer, but found that the direct and indirect costs, including delivery and installation, would still bring the total price of recycling up to about 2.33 per cent more than what it would pay for new furniture. It did not provide a breakdown about how it calculated those direct and indirect costs.

"The initial furniture strategy for the building and annex is evolving as actual costs and more detailed functional programming information become available," said the briefing note, sent by assistant deputy minister John McBain from the department's Real Property Branch.

"It will continue to be adjusted as required to ensure that the project objectives are met. The timely delivery of the project is a major consideration affecting cost and influencing many of the project decisions. It is currently on scope, on budget and on schedule with a projected completion in February 2013."

It cost about $140,000 to store furniture from the Environment Canada building for about a year in an Ottawa area warehouse, before the government announced it would buy new work stations.

Original Article
Source: canada.com