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Bad Apples at the Bottom of the Government Barrel
By
Bob Orrick
14 August 2003
Regular readers of this space will know that bureaucrats in general and incompetent ones in particular are viewed as a necessary part of government but not necessarily the better or best part. It is the opinion of this space, that far too many bureaucrats do little more than cover their posteriors in order to make themselves look busy and to convince their higher-ups that they are necessary. These opinions are based on personal observation [during time as a ministerial assistant to a cabinet minister] and from having to do business with bureaucrats at the civic, provincial and federal levels. In a word, this space is not enamoured with government bureaucracy. That said, however, this space does recognise that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of civic, provincial and federal bureaucrats are diligent in their endeavours. They perform their duties with industriousness and give every appearance that they truly want to be of assistance to an inquiring public. Those, this space suggests, are the true bureaucrats; unfortunately, they appear to be in the minority rather than the majority. The bad apples that hide in the bottom of the federal barrel of bureaucracy are beyond belief.
The headline in the National Post of Tuesday, August 12 announced in big, bold, black letters that "Judge orders Ottawa to pay $70M." A subhead stated "Treatment of company is called shocking - internal e-mail 'sink the suckers.'" The story concerns the actions of federal bureaucrats and their 'shocking behaviour' as 'scheming and lying.' The Canadian bureaucrats "virtually destroyed the firm [Amertek Inc. an Ontario company now defunct] while defrauding the U.S. government." Pretty strong words; they are contained in a 198-page decision rendered by Justice John O'Driscoll of the Ontario Superior Court.
A quote from the Post, "The 'shocking behaviour' included the sending of an e-mail message by a bureaucrat describing the company as 'suckers' who should be pushed into bankruptcy.
"The judge ordered the Canadian Commercial Corporation [CCC], a federal Crown corporation, and the Attorney-General of Canada to pay US$26.5-million plus interest to Amertek Inc. [the remains of which is now known as Shu-Pak Equipment of Guelph, Ontario] and two investors … .The total, according to a formula in the court judgement, adds up to more than $70-million."
According to the report, the story began in 1984, when the Canadian and U.S. governments awarded contracts to Quebec-based Walter Trucks Inc. to build fire and crash rescue trucks for Transport Canada and the U.S. Army. The deal was part of a federal regional development strategy.
The CCC guaranteed the U.S. military deal. "The CCC is a little-known Crown corporation that guarantees all Canada-U.S. military contracts by ensuring Canadian bidders have the financial and technical strength to honour their deals."
It seems that a few weeks after the contract was let, Walter Trucks Inc. went belly up. That left the CCC with "almost $20-million"in penalties owing to the U.S. Army. The CCC had failed to ensure "its Canadian contractor could deliver the trucks on time and according to specifications."
Senior CCC bureaucrats persuaded Amertek to "take over the contract." They did this without checking on the company's finances or technical ability to do the job. The same bureaucracy misled Amertek "about serious flaws it knew about with Walter's low-cost bid."
The Canadians then dug the hole deeper when they sought consent from the U.S. Army officials to substitute Amertek for Walter. The Canadians told the Americans that Amertek "had the money and technical ability to handle the big [362 trucks] contract."
The disease continued when one of CCC's senior bureaucrats wrote an e-mail in which he discussed bankruptcy court proceedings involving Amertek, "which was making a proposal to its creditors to restructure and repay a portion of its last few debts."
The CCC senior official wrote, "Voting against the proposal as it stands, will see Amertek Inc. being deemed to have made an assignment in bankruptcy." The e-mail writer then added, "As I see it here, this is our chance to sink the suckers in bankruptcy. They are out on the plank. Let's keep them walking."
At trial, "a sanitised version of the 'suckers' e-mail was produced" and the CCC senior bureaucrat "testified he created the sanitised one before the original."
The trial judge did not believe the bureaucrat.
During the trial, 25,000 pages of evidence were submitted to the court and established that CCC and other government officials "engaged in deception and wrongdoing toward Amertek and the U.S. government." Those words by Judge Driscoll.
Much credit for having brought this issue to the public's attention goes to Dennis Mills, a Toronto Liberal MP who pressured the government to review the CCC official's conduct in the case.
Interestingly, there is more.
Public Works [the government ministry responsible] hired auditors Deloitte Touche to conduct 'an objective, independent and comprehensive review.' Judge Driscoll found that the government hired "auditors who had done considerable prior work for CCC. Worse, their report was reviewed by the president of CCC, … , at every stage of the process and of its editing."
Lawyers for Amertek argued that the Deloitte Touche review, "which cleared CCC officials of any improper conduct, was a farce and a whitewash done to curry favour with CCC for future business."
Judge Driscoll said that he agreed with the Amertek lawyer's submissions.
It has been said, repeatedly, that it only takes one rotten apple to spoil the barrel. It seems that more than one rotten apple was found in the Crown Corporation, Canadian Commercial Corporation.
I applaud Liberal MP Dennis Mills for his integrity and desire to see corruption rooted out and revealed for all to see. Clearly, these CCC bureaucrats represent the worst of the worst. One only hopes that they are on display to show Canadians and Americans what truly bad apples look like.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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