Canada's then Deputy Minister of Natural Resources John Hannaford, who became Clerk of the Privy Council in June 2023, poses for photographers at the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia with Arifin Tasrif, the then Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022.Firdia Lisnawati/The Canadian Press
The head of the federal public service says the government fell short of expectations over the past year because of ethics breaches related to federal procurement.
John Hannaford, the Clerk of the Privy Council, has promised to implement a culture change inside the federal government. Mr. Hannaford made the pledge in his annual report to the Prime Minister on the public service, which was released Wednesday.
The 55-page document opens with a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, dated Aug. 21, in which he makes reference to media reports and committee hearings over the past year that have exposed shortfalls with federal oversight of the billions of dollars Ottawa spends each year on contracts.
“While I am continually impressed with the work of public servants, there were instances this year when we as a public service fell short. Whether it is our continued failure to fully resolve the Phoenix pay system or our procurement processes coming into question, we as a public service must face these challenges head on and do better,” he wrote.
Mr. Hannaford became Clerk of the Privy Council in June, 2023, after holding various senior positions in the federal public service.
The report includes a section focused on fostering a culture change with respect to values and ethics.
“Over the past year, the media have reported on a lack of public trust in government and the Public Service, and parliamentary committees have scrutinized the accountability of senior leaders, because of recent values and ethics breaches. These, and other changes in our operating environment, have reinforced the importance of our renewed discussion on values and ethics in the federal public service,” the report states.
Mr. Hannaford’s review does not mention specific media reports or committee hearings. However the government operations committee and the public accounts committee held extensive hearings over the past year into procurement issues such as the government’s handling of the ArriveCan app.
The hearings followed The Globe and Mail’s initial reporting that the cost of the government’s smartphone app for cross-border travellers that was launched at the onset of the pandemic had grown to at least $54-million. The Globe also reported that the main contractor on the project, GCStrategies, was a two-person company with no standalone office space that does not perform any IT work on its own. Instead, it subcontracts the work to other companies and individuals in exchange for a commission of between 15 and 30 per cent of the contract value.
Mr. Trudeau has described the heavy use of subcontracting on ArriveCan as “illogical” and Auditor-General Karen Hogan released a report in February on ArriveCan that said federal record keeping was so poor that she was unable to confirm a clear price tag for the project, estimating it at $59.5-million.
During a committee appearance in June, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme and Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn told MPs the police force is conducting more than half a dozen criminal investigations into federal contracting, including one specifically focused on ArriveCan.
In March, federal officials revealed that an internal review of federal contracting found nearly $5-million in fraudulent billing by three private subcontractors. The officials described the announcement as the first wave of what will be a series of updates related to fraudulent billing cases.
Public committee hearings into ArriveCan and other procurement issues over the past year have featured an unprecedented level of public finger-pointing among senior members of the public service.
The stream of accusations has not let up. Earlier this month, a former Canada Border Services Agency official who handled ArriveCan contracting files told a Commons committee that she’s been suspended as a form of retribution by senior managers because she refused to give false testimony as part of an internal probe into alleged contracting misconduct.
Diane Daly told MPs she was suspended for not adhering to the values and ethics rules of the public service as it relates to procurement.
The committee is planning to call other witnesses to respond to Ms. Daly’s testimony.
This week’s report from Mr. Hannaford said a deputy ministers’ task team on values and ethics was created in September and held 90 discussions across the public service during its first four months. That led to the publication of a report that found “a perceived lack of accountability or a ‘double standard’ between senior leadership and employees when it comes to compliance and enforcement” of ethics rules.
“Alongside organizational efforts to engage employees and review their codes, the values and ethics dialogue is intended to be ongoing and to bring to life our values and ethics to create a lasting impact on our day-to-day actions,” Mr. Hannaford’s report states.