Former public servant linked to ArriveCan questioned by MPs about government contracts

MPs grilled the head of an IT firm over his employ‐ ment with the Department of National Defence (DND) during a House committee meeting on Tuesday.

David Yeo, founder and president of Dalian Enter‐ prises - which was involved in the development of the fed‐ eral government's controver‐ sial ArriveCan app - has been facing scrutiny since it was reported that he was a DND employee while his company held contracts with the feder‐ al government.

Dalian told CBC News ear‐ lier this month that Yeo had been hired by DND only this past September and that he took steps to address any conflict of interest concerns by agreeing to have no in‐ volvement with Dalian's DND projects and putting the com‐ pany into a "blind trust."

Yeo repeated those asser‐ tions to MPs on the public ac‐ counts committee on Tues‐ day, saying that he had been "hands off" with the com‐ pany when he became a DND employee. The govern‐ ment suspended Yeo's em‐ ployment and he said he has since resigned from the de‐ partment.

But MPs questioned how distant he was from the com‐ pany while he was working for DND.

Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné pointed out that his sig‐ nature appeared on govern‐ ment contracts that were signed after he was hired by DND. Yeo said he had "a sig‐ nature available" for staff to use on contracts.

"I provided my signature to the staff so if there was something going on, that I would not even be aware of it," he said.

Dalian was one of the contractors that worked on the ArriveCan app. Yeo ap‐ peared before the govern‐ ment operations committee in October to discuss Arrive‐ Can, but presented himself as Dalian's founder and pres‐ ident. He didn't tell MPs on that committee that he had been hired by DND.

"I am an executive on the board of directors for Dalian, and I maintain all of the gov‐ ernance as it relates to the [procurement strategy for In‐ digenous business] and make sure that the company is absolutely in line, in step, with everything that relates to procurement and govern‐ ment contracting within the federal government," he told the committee in October.

Conservative MP Larry Brock asked Yeo during Tues‐ day's committee hearing why he didn't disclose that he had been hired by DND during his October testimony.

Yeo replied that he had been invited to that commit‐ tee as a Dalian representa‐ tive and that his testimony had "zero to do with DND."

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis later asked if Yeo was still on Dalian's board of di‐ rectors when he was before the committee in October.

"At that time, there was no divestiture because we were working on it," Yeo replied.

"We were in flux during that time period."

Later, under questioning from Conservative MP John Nater, Yeo said was having meetings with his lawyers about putting his Dalian shares in a blind trust as late as January. He said that in hindsight, he wished he had started the process earlier.

"I should have done all of that prior to even looking at the offer [of employment] from the government," he said.

"That one's on me, but at the end of the day, all of the information got where it needed to go."

Yeo disputes auditor general's numbers

Yeo also said he disagreed with Auditor General Karen Hogan's recent report, which states Dalian received $7.9 million for its work on Arrive‐ Can. He suggested that Dali‐ an received $4.9 million for the project.

GC Strategies, the main ArriveCan contractor, also has questioned Hogan's re‐ port.

Kristian Firth, a partner with GC Strategies, told a House committee last week that the government's poor bookkeeping led Hogan's re‐ port to include an inflated es‐ timate of the amount his company received for the project.

Hogan noted in her report that the final cost of Arrive‐ Can was "impossible to de‐ termine" due to poor finan‐ cial record-keeping at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

When asked by CBC News, Hogan's office stood by its $7.9 million estimate of the amount Dalian received for ArriveCan.

"As stated in our report, given the deficiencies in the CBSA's financial records, our auditors prepared an esti‐ mate using the CBSA's finan‐ cial system, contractual docu‐ ments, and other evidence," a spokesperson said.

"Based on this estimate, the cost associated with Dali‐ an Enterprises Inc. was $7.9 million."