Public servant named in ArriveCan controversy denies responsibility for contracting issues
Diane Daly told a committee of MPs she fears she could lose her job for testifying truthfully
A public servant who has been named multiple times in parliamentary hearings on the ArriveCan controversy is denying responsibility for the project's contracting issues.
Diane Daly, an employee with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), appeared Wednesday before the House public accounts committee, which has been investigating ArriveCan's soaring costs.
Daly told the committee that she was seconded to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) while ArriveCan was being developed. She said she had no authority to make decisions about the contracting process and insisted that her role was largely an administrative one.
"Any and all decisions were not mine to make. I had no … right to make decisions," she said.
Daly also claimed that she was concerned about providing testimony and feared she could lose her job by telling MPs the truth.
The ArriveCan app was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic as a tool for the government to collect and track the health information of those arriving in Canada.
Earlier this year, the auditor general reported a number of contracting irregularities with the app and said the high cost of the project — estimated at roughly $60 million — was due in part to the government's over-reliance on outside contractors.
Daly has been named multiple times in previous committee hearings. She was mentioned by Kristian Firth, one of the main contractors who worked on ArriveCan, when he appeared in front of the entire House in April.
The auditor general's report said that Firth's company, GC Strategies, helped to develop requirements for a $25 million ArriveCan contract that ultimately was awarded to GC Strategies.
Firth disagreed with the suggestion that the contract requirements favoured his company. He named Daly when pressed to identify those he had communicated with about those requirements.
On Wednesday, Daly said she wouldn't have been responsible for developing the contract requirements and would have forwarded any information she received from Firth to the IT team at CBSA.
When asked, Daly said she was not sure why Firth singled her out in his testimony.
"I did not have the expertise to know what an IT anything was. So if Mr. Firth sent me anything, it would have been forwarded on to IT services," she said.
Daly also claimed that she had raised a number of issues about GC Strategies' documentation related to the project.
"I dealt with Kristian Firth on multiple occasions for incorrect invoices," she told the committee.
GC Strategies, which is currently being investigated by the RCMP, was a PSPC pre-approved contractor, Daly said. She suggested there could be issues with that department's vetting process.
Daly says she fears for her job
During her opening statement, Daly said she feared consequences for providing accurate testimony.
"I'm here to tell the truth, but I'm very concerned I'm going to lose my job," she said.
Daly said she felt pressured by some of her superiors to provide false testimony to an internal CBSA investigator. She said she has since been placed on administrative leave.
Daly's comments come after two other public servants claimed they've been scapegoated for the ArriveCan debacle.
Antonio Utano and Cameron MacDonald told a House committee in February that they were suspended without pay after they testified at an earlier committee meeting.
Utano and MacDonald said Minh Doan, previously their superior, was the one who selected GC Strategies for ArriveCan and accused him of lying to MPs about the project.
During his own committee appearance, Doan denied those allegations and suggested that Utano and MacDonald had a cozy relationship with Firth and his partner.
On Wednesday, Daly lamented the accusations flying back and forth between public servants at previous committee hearings.
"Senior management and political appointees pitting federal government workers against each other … is akin to a malicious 911 call on a coworker," she said.
Daly told the committee that she never saw Utano or MacDonald act in a nefarious way. When asked, she also said she couldn't confirm that Doan was the one who selected GC Strategies for the ArriveCan project.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
