Angry in the Great White North

As you recall, Liberal MP David Smith, who sits in Parliament for the riding of Pontiac and claims to be an aboriginal, ran a company called Abotech, a computer consultancy firm, out of his home. Now the company is run by his wife, a nurse. Smith insists he has no idea what is going in Abotech.

Abotech has been caught up in a KPMG audit at PWGSC. Several contracts between Abotech and the federal government have been terminated. Why? No one is saying. Also, a bureaucrat named Frank Brazeau has been suspended without pay in connection with the audit. Frank Brazeau is also David Smith's cousin. Why was he suspended? No one is saying.

For a full list of posts related to this scandal, check out the Abotech archive.

The reports we have from the media state the problem has to do with sole-sourcing contracts. In other words, this is a problem of process, not of quality of work. Abotech itself is innocent, or so it is implied. In fact, it is the victim in this drama. It is being punished because it accepted contracts from an incompetent or corrupt government official, a certain Frank Brazeau, who did not follow the rules.

Frank Brazeau, a consultant with Project Management Services at Public Works and Government Services Canada, was suspended without pay. In fact, he is the only person we know of for certain that has been punished in this matter, even though the details are unclear.

Abotech itself, David Smith's firm, was given a clean bill of health by none other than Public Works Minister Scott Brison on the floor of the House of Commons:

Mr. Speaker, first of all, we decided to cancel these contracts as part of an overall review as we strengthen governance and improve competition and value for tax dollars. It is important to note that there was no issue with the services being provided, and in fact, that value was received for tax dollars.

But Abotech appears somehow involved in millions of dollars of bogus expenses charged to the RCMP pension fund while Abotech was involved in the management of that fund.

Bogus hospitality and staffing expenses are not so easily dismissed, nor can the blame for them be easily shifted.

The more I think about it, the more it bothers me. In June 2005, the RCMP gets a report from the investigation into the bogus expenses, a problem that happened when David Smith was running the company in 2003. The report does not recommend criminal charges, but administrative changes are forthcoming. Some weeks later, Abotech starts losing contracts, under the guise of a bureaucratic problem.

Is the sole-sourcing problem for which Abotech is being punished, and that was so breezily dismissed by Minister Brison as really an opportunity to improve on the quality work provided by Abotech, just a smokescreen? Is it a way to deal with a potentially embarrassing problem in a quiet way, especially with a minority government in the balance? Is Frank Brazeau guilty of being a convenient scapegoat? Does he even know what is really going on, or has he been simultaneously promised a reward for his silence and threatened with retribution if he talks?

Is this about protecting David Smith and one extra Liberal seat so crucial for the survival of the minority government? Is this about trying to avoid one more multi-million dollar scandal, a scandal that might prove fatal to the scandal-ridden Liberal Party if it becomes public just prior to an election? Is my theory about aboriginal set-asides being diverted by Frank Brazeau to David Smith just plain wrong, or at best, a side show?

I can't get rid of this nagging feeling that I've been barking up the wrong tree.