Probe into WE contracts widens
Six sole-sourced federal deals
OTTAWA • The federal procurement watchdog has launched an investigation into a series of sole-source government contracts awarded to the WE organization since 2017.
In an email to National Post, Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic’s office confirmed that it had launched an in-depth review of at least six non-competitive contracts that were awarded to WE.
The deals, all under the $40,000 threshold that would trigger a tendering process, were signed between 2017 and 2020 by four federal departments: Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the Privy Council Office (PCO), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), said ombudsman’s spokesperson Anik Trépanier.
The review of the six contracts, as well as any others that may come up during the investigation, aims to determine if each was awarded lawfully and respectfully of “principles of fairness, openness and transparency,” her statement said.
The ombudsman decided to launch the review after assessing preliminary information provided by each department, Trépanier added.
The investigation comes nearly two months after the National Post first reported that WE Charity had obtained a series of sole-source contracts from the federal government since Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister in 2015.
Contracts are considered “sole-source” when they are handed directly to a chosen supplier, without the opportunity for others to provide competing bids on government work.
A few days after the initial report, the Conservatives sent a letter to Jeglic’s office requesting an investigation into all deals involving WE.
“I am pleased that the ombudsman has confirmed what we were suspicious about, that there is something worth looking into,” Conservative procurement critic Kelly Block said in an interview Thursday.
“When it was reported that there were other sole-source contracts given to this organization over the last three years, we certainly felt that (the sole-source contracts were) something that needed to be looked into as well.”
Trépanier refused to disclose which six contracts were under review. But National Post reported on June 30 that WE Charity received five federal contracts worth a total of $120,000 since March 2017 from GAC, PCO and PHAC, according to public government records.
At the time, WE Charity explained that it had occasionally signed contracts with the federal government and that “in all instances, appropriate contracting procedures have been followed.”
The same government records show a sixth, previously unreported contract between the Canada School of Public Service and ME to WE Leadership — part of WE’s for-profit arm — worth $11,300.