Reveal TPC Audit Results says Rajotte (en francais)

As every day goes by, you've got to wonder why the continuing secrecy concerning the completed audits. With David Dingwall being one of the unregistered lobbyists discovered so far, it makes me wonder who else is on the list.

What other former Liberal Cabinet Minister or Prime Minister's friend is being protected?

Is the Liberal government stalling for time in order to allow the 2 year statute of limitations to run out?

The parallels to the Sponsorship programs are starting to become more pronounced all the time:

Special rules for Liberals, cancellation of the program, no accountablility to Parliament, poor management and oversight, secrecy even from Parliament and the Industry Committee, denials day in and day out that anything is wrong, hints of political involvement in the selection process (See the Kroll audit)... the list goes on.

At the very least, the Industry Committee is owed an in-camera explanation as to what is transpiring with these audits. If the Industry department is not accountable to the opposition parties - why do we bother having an opposition?

Rajotte demands TPC audit be released
03 November 2005

OTTAWA – James Rajotte, Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Leduc and Senior Opposition Critic for Industry, Science and Technology today demanded that Industry Minister David Emerson make public the names of all Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) recipients who have been found to have violated the terms of their TPC agreements.

“The secrecy around TPC has got to stop,” said Rajotte. “We know that in September at least five companies were found to have breached the terms of their TPC contracts. I want to know if those companies are still in receipt of their TPC grant and if any breach was based on a contingency fee issue.”

Two of the five companies, Bioniche and Spectrum Signal Processing Inc., have issued press releases saying that, despite having broken the rules, both companies are again in good standing with the Technology Partnerships Canada program However, Spectrum Signal Processing Inc. disagrees with the TPC’s allegation of a breach regarding one of the lobbyists they employed to help them secure a TPC grant..

“Clearly there is confusion surrounding TPC and the auditing process,” said Rajotte. “We need to get to the bottom of this issue. The first step is to make all audits public.”

Rajotte is calling on Industry Minister David Emerson to table the names of the companies in breach of TPC as soon as possible.

For further information, contact James Rajotte (613) 992-3594 or (780) 495-4351