Why has Selinger not disciplined his minister?

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This article was published 18/06/2015 (3848 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Why weren’t the alarm bells going off for Premier Greg Selinger?

In the wake of revelations that Infrastructure Minister Steve Ashton tried to improperly obtain a $5-million untendered contract to buy Tiger Dam portable flood-fighting equipment to help Interlake First Nations, this has become the pre-eminent question surrounding the premier.

On Wednesday, the Free Press revealed Ashton had been the subject of a conflict-of-interest investigation by the Manitoba ombudsman. Ashton has personal and political connections to two parties involved in the contract.

Selinger was out of town when the story broke, but he did issue a statement that said after the contract rose to the cabinet level for discussion last October, he ordered it be subjected to a full public tender.

On Thursday, Selinger elaborated. He told the Free Press he was supporting a proposal by Ashton to have the contract reviewed by the ombudsman. “There’s lots of potential there for them to confirm what really happened in term of the internal process,” Selinger said.

To be frank, it’s a little hard to believe that the premier really believes what he is saying. Particularly his intimation that he personally does not know “what really happened.”

Senior government sources confirmed Ashton and his cosy relationship with U.S./International Flood Control Corp. — the Calgary-based company that makes Tiger Dam — had been a major source of concern for political staff for several years.

The concern was based on the fact that IFCC, which received Manitoba contracts worth at least $6 million, is represented here by restaurant owner Peter Ginakes, one of Ashton’s longtime friends and political donors.

This was all well known inside the NDP government. As a result, it seems odd, even improbable that Selinger was unaware of the magnitude of the problem Ashton was cooking up. In fact, the Ginakes-Ashton relationship was only the tip of an unethical iceberg lurking in this file.

The contract in question would have seen $5 million in Tiger Dam equipment made by US/International Flood Control Corp., acquired by the Interlake Tribal Council to establish an emergency flood operations centre. Spearheading the deal was former Peguis First Nation chief Glen Hudson.

Hudson and Ginakes were much more than contractor and client. As well as owning the rights to Tiger Dam in Manitoba, Ginakes sits on the board of directors of the Chief Peguis Investment Corp., an agency of the Peguis First Nation, which was spearheading the purchase of Tiger Dam equipment to stock an emergency flood-fighting centre.

Further complicating matters was the fact that sources confirmed Ashton had been lobbying within government to grant Peguis a casino licence as part of a partnership with the Manitoba Jockey Club to redevelop Assiniboia Downs. In an interview, Ashton conceded he has long supported the establishment of additional aboriginal casinos.

All of this information was well known to Selinger’s senior staff and key cabinet ministers who had fended off Ashton’s bids to push more business to IFCC and award Peguis a casino licence. “Steve was always trying to get us to buy Tiger Dam,” one senior government source said. “It was a constant thing with him. And in most instances we were able to beat him back because we always had the support of the premier.”

Now with all this knowledge within easy grasp, the big question is why has Selinger not disciplined his minister for trying to obtain an untendered contract? Certainly, Selinger’s principal critics within his own government believe the premier wittingly approved of what Ashton was doing when he wouldn’t kill the contract proposal at an October cabinet meeting.

On Thursday evening, a spokesman for the premier’s office said the untendered Tiger Dam contract first reached Treasury Board Oct. 6. It was not recommended for approval.

That decision went on to a cabinet meeting on October 8, the spokesman said. At that meeting, the premier decided not to approve the Treasury Board recommendation but did commit to studying Ashton’s proposal a bit more.

This may have been interpreted by some at cabinet as tacit support for the untendered contract. The spokesman said, however, that Selinger met Oct. 9 with senior officials in Manitoba Infrastructure and the Treasury Board secretariat to discuss the contract. Selinger decided at that meeting to send the entire contract to a formal public tender, the spokesman added.

Where does all this leave us? It is increasingly clear that given Ashton’s relationship to both vendor and the purchaser of the dam equipment, it was inappropriate for him to be involved in the deal at all, let a lone acting as the agent to secure an untendered contract.

What is unclear is why, having apparently made the right decision to stop Ashton’s plan for an untendered contract, Selinger did not discipline his minister for potentially putting the government in such a difficult position.

Unfortunately, that is not going to be something that the Ombudsman is going to consider in any future investigation.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca