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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lino... who wrote (2974)	8/14/2003 8:34:55 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 37534

Judge blasts bureaucrat's behaviour Amertek lawsuit: Crown agency staff 'the bad guys in this whole mess' Andrew McIntosh National Post Thursday, August 14, 2003 nationalpost.com OTTAWA - The bureaucratic deception that destroyed an Ontario company and spawned a lawsuit that threatens to cost Canadian taxpayers $70-million "will continue unabated" unless the top federal public servant who oversaw and condoned it "changes or is changed," an Ontario Superior Court Justice says. In a 198-page judgment awarding $70-million to the now-defunct company Amertek Inc. after a marathon legal battle, Mr. Justice John O'Driscoll took aim at the president of the Canadian Commercial Corporation., a Crown agency involved in export defence contracting. Throughout the case and trial, Canadian Commercial Corporation employees and their lawyers repeatedly characterized their conduct toward Amertek, a maker of fire truck bodies, as that of "sincere and dedicated public servants." But an e-mail from a staffer at the corporation emerged at the trial that belies that characterization. "Sink the suckers. They are out on the plank. Let's keep them walking," the bureaucrat wrote, urging his bosses to drive Amertek into bankruptcy. Justice O'Driscoll took issue with the corporation's view of its conduct and challenged the attitude of its president, Douglas Patriquin, a Liberal government appointee. Mr. Patriquin was the agency's former chief operating officer and has been involved with the lawsuit for years. "If, in the eyes and hearts of the government defendants, the actions chronicled constitute sincere and dedicated performance of duties by public servants, the conduct which spawned this lawsuit will continue unabated unless the person at the helm changes or is changed," the judge added. John Spence, a spokesman for the Canadian Commercial Corporation, declined on Mr. Patriquin's behalf to comment on Justice O'Driscoll's remark. "We have nothing to say," Mr. Spence said yesterday. Justice O'Driscoll ruled that bureaucrats at Canadian Commercial Corporation with a hidden agenda destroyed Amertek while defrauding the U.S government. He ordered the Crown agency to pay the firm US$26.5-million plus interest, since the events began in 1985, and other damages, bringing the total to more than $70-million. The judge wrote that Amertek and its two investors were the unsuspecting victims of "shocking behaviour on the part of federal civil servants, behaviour that would cause the reasonably informed person to lose confidence in a Crown corporation and a department of the federal government." Justice O'Driscoll also had a lot more to say about the corporation and its president, adding: "There was a deeply rooted anti-Amertek culture that permeated the management of CCC." He added one CCC staffer "should have realized that CCC were the bad guys in this whole mess and had been for some years." The judge found Mr. Patriquin personally approved payments of $74,000 to consulting firm Deloitte Touche for what was described as an "independent and objective" review of the Amertek case, but which Justice O'Driscoll instead described as "a farce" and "a whitewash." Deloitte Touche had previously agreed to a fixed price of $24,000 for the report, but was paid another $50,000 after letting Mr. Patriquin limit the people to be interviewed and documents to be seen by Deloitte Touche staff for its report, the judgment states. That way, the judge said, Mr. Patriquin ensured the findings of the review gave his minister "confidence in what we do." Events in the Amertek case 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. Performance of the U.S. military deal was guaranteed by the little-known Crown corporation that guarantees all Canada-U.S. military contracts by checking out Canadian bidders and ensuring they have the financial and technical strength to honour their deals. A few weeks after getting the U.S. Army deal for 362 fire trucks over five years, Walter Trucks went bankrupt, leaving the corporation with almost $20-million in potential penalties owing to the U.S. Army because it had negligently failed to ensure its Canadian contractor could deliver the trucks on time and according to specifications. Senior officials at the corporation persuaded Amertek to take over the contract, but concealed from them the serious flaws with Walter's low-cost bid. Canadian officials sought the consent of U.S. Army officials to substitute Amertek for Walter Trucks, telling U.S. military brass the substitute Canadian firm had the money and technical savvy to handle the contract. In fact, the officials knew the opposite was true and said as much in their own internal reports. "This was fraud on the U.S. government," Justice O'Driscoll wrote. Amertek went out of business in 1993 after incurring significant financial losses on its big U.S. Army truck contracts. Part of its operations continue under the Shu-Pak name in Guelph, which makes recycling side loaders trucks. amcintosh@nationalpost.com © Copyright 2003 National Post