MPs poke holes in ArriveCan contractor’s claims that his government employment was no conflict

Article content material

OTTAWA — The embattled head of ArriveCan contractor Dalian informed MPs he was by no means in battle of curiosity whereas working on the Division of Nationwide Defence, regardless of his signature showing on a Dalian contract with authorities two months after he grew to become a public servant.

David Yeo, the pinnacle of IT consulting agency Dalian, raised the hackles of MPs of all events on the Home public accounts committee Tuesday throughout a two-hour testimony marked by contradictions and confrontation.

Article content material

Article content material

Yeo started by telling the committee that he joined the federal public service in September 2023, “lengthy after” his firm Dalian’s work with ArriveCan was accomplished.

He stated he then entered right into a “Confidentiality, Non-Disclosure and No Entry Settlement” cope with Dalian inside 60 days after starting work as a DND worker.

He took swipes on the auditor common’s scathing report on ArriveCan, saying it was each a “good report” that contained “vagaries,” “discrepancies” and “incorrect info.” For instance, he stated that Dalian had acquired $4.9 million in contracts for ArriveCan, not $7.9 million, as reported by the auditor common.

He additionally accused the media of reporting “faux information” when it reported that his LinkedIn account confirmed him as working for DND for many years, together with throughout the time he headed Dalian and the corporate was contracted by the federal government to work on ArriveCan. He accused the press of not contacting him for remark.

Conservatives fired again that Yeo informed committee members throughout a listening to on Oct. 31 that he was nonetheless an government on Dalian’s board of administrators on the time.

Article content material

Article content material

“You’ve got stated that… the media have claimed that you simply have been on (Dalian’s) board of administrators and a authorities worker on the similar time with out asking you. Properly, possibly they didn’t have to ask you as a result of they foolishly assumed that what you informed Parliament on October the thirty first was true,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis stated.

Yeo additionally stated that he had resigned from the general public service shortly after stories of his potential unreported “double dipping” as a public servant and authorities contractor emerged, however that DND had since despatched statements to the media that it had discovered no battle of curiosity in his case.

DND didn’t instantly reply to a request to substantiate that info. Nationwide Put up was not capable of finding the assertion. Postmedia reported earlier this month that DND had confirmed that public servants are allowed to have facet contracts with the federal government, offered correct guidelines are adopted, nonetheless it had additionally suspended Yeo pending an investigation.

Article content material

Yeo’s story appeared to additional unravel when MPs started grilling him on a contract between the federal government and Dalian signed in November 2023, two months after he stated he stepped away from Dalian.

Yeo ultimately confirmed that his signature appeared on the Dalian contract, which he didn’t open up to the Defence Division as a battle of curiosity. He claimed it was as a result of he had licensed his companion to breed his signature on his behalf in his absence from the corporate.

“So Dalian signed a contract with DND after you grew to become an worker once more within the fall of (2023). That is clearly a battle of curiosity. Why did you not really feel you have been in a battle?” requested Liberal MP Jean Yip.

Yeo informed the committee that he didn’t inform DND that he signed the November 2023 contract between Dalian and the federal government as a result of “I didn’t truly signal it. I had a signature accessible for the employees on the workplace for them to make use of.”

By the tip of the committee assembly, MPs from varied events have been questioning Yeo’s credibility and truthfulness.

“Your story has quite a few holes in it,” Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan stated.

Article content material

“Mr. Yeo, it has been extraordinarily disappointing to see this stage of misrepresentation,” stated NDP MP Blake Desjarlais.

MPs additionally spent a while exploring Yeo’s political previous. He confirmed he had run for the Individuals’s Get together of Canada in 2021 however said he had in any other case at all times been a member of the “Progressive Conservatives,” presumably which means the Conservative Get together of Canada. CPC committee members questioned that assertion and requested Yeo to desk proof to the committee of his membership.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett additionally puzzled why the committee ought to consider any of his critiques of the auditor common’s report.

“You learn it and decided … that the entire military of auditors was mistaken, and this one-man military was proper. However you’ve supplied a sequence of assertions in your committee appearances that aren’t true and people have been highlighted by members of different events and my colleagues,” Barrett informed Yeo.

Nationwide Put up

cnardi@postmedia.com

Our web site is the place for the newest breaking information, unique scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and join our politics publication, First Studying, right here.

Article content material