Tories say untendered Tiger Dam contracts are worth nearly $9M

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This article was published 16/09/2015 (3762 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Opposition Tories today accused the Selinger government of not disclosing the details of untendered contracts for flood control barriers.

Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister said information on several untendered contacts to Tiger Dam International Flood Control for water-filled flood barriers and other equipment was not disclosed in the Manitoba Untendered Contract Database as required by law under section 80 of the Financial Administration Act. The Tories say the untendered Tiger Dam contracts are valued at nearly $9 million.

Pallister said only when revealed by the PCs in late August did the government update the database.

“It begs the question how many more untendered contracts has government entered into that are not yet available to the public,” Pallister told reporters.

“Manitobans are right to ask what else are they covering up? Is it just flood-fighting equipment that they don’t want tell us about?”

Last June the Free Press reported that Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton was the subject of a whistleblower’s complaint in that he allegedly tried to secure an untendered $5 million flood equipment contract for Tiger Dam, to supply the flood-fighting equipment to five First Nations, outside the normal government approval process. The sole distributor of Tiger Dams in Manitoba is a personal friend and financial contributor of Ashton’s. 

How the issue was handled by the government was in part one of the reasons why five cabinet ministers resigned last year, forcing Premier Greg Selinger to defend his leadership of the provincial NDP against challengers Theresa Oswald and Ashton.

Ombudsman Charlene Paquin is now reviewing how the government handled the file. Her report is due sometime this fall. Ashton and Selinger have denied any wrongdoing.

Much of the information release by the Tories today is in reaction to a Free Press story published in July that showed an almost chronic reliance on untendered or informally tendered contracts for the purchase of mobile flood tubes over the past decade. 

The Free Press reported that over that period, the province issued 14 contracts to two different suppliers, including Tiger Dam, for $12.8 million in mobile flood tubing and the vehicles to transport the materials. All but one of the contracts was untendered or informally tendered.

NDP House Leader Dave Chomiak said Pallister and his Tories are simply reacting to a story published almost two months ago.

“I’m saying the Tories are going back to old news,” Chomiak said. “This is something that was given to the media and given to them, and they are trying to twist it around and use it as an attack.”

Chomiak also said the government is weeks away from making the Manitoba Untendered Contract Database fully accessible to the public on-line. Currently, it can only be accessed at the library at the Manitoba Legislative Building.

The move to a searchable electronic database was recommended by the auditor general in a report last year (page 430). Chomiak says the Tories know this, which makes Pallister’s criticisms ring hollow.

“They’re trying to get a few kicks at that cat and make politics out of it before we go on-line,” Chomiak says.