posted on March 20, 2004 04:17:29 AM new
'I'm not protecting anybody': Gagliano
Last Updated Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:59:20
OTTAWA - Former Public Works minister Alfonso Gagliano insisted Friday that he had fulfilled his duties by ordering an audit of the federal sponsorship program, and dismissed accusations that he's covering up anything.
In his second day of testimony before the House of Commons public accounts committee, he clashed repeatedly with the committee chair on the definition of ministerial responsibility.
"You have an obligation, sir, to accept the responsibility," Conservative MP John Williams told Gagliano. "I think you're just failing absolutely and completely."
"You are asking me to incriminate myself, and therefore I won't do that," Gagliano replied.
Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy suggested Gagliano is trying to protect old political bosses, including perhaps, former prime minister Jean Chrétien, by claiming he didn't know what was going on.
"Who are you protecting Mr. Gagliano, and why aren't you telling what you really know, what you really talked about, what really happened, in your department?" she asked.
But Gagliano said he was not part of any wrongdoing, and was not covering up for anyone.
"I'm going to stay calm because I think the accusations were very serious," he told Ablonczy. "Let me say that I'm not protecting anybody. I'm telling what I know."
* INDEPTH: Sponsorship Scandal
The parliamentary committee is examining how a $250-million program run by the Ministry of Public Works paid as much as $100 million to communications firms that did little or no work for their fees.
Gagliano was the minister of Public Works when the misspending occurred. He was fired last month as Canada's ambassador to Denmark when the auditor general released a scathing critique of the sponsorship program.
Citing legislation, Williams repeatedly insisted Friday that Gagliano's role as minister required him to take responsibility for misdeeds within his ministry, even if he had no knowledge of them when they occurred.
"As a minister of the Crown, you were responsible," he said.
Gagliano flatly rejected that interpretation, saying that he fulfilled his obligations by ordering an internal audit as soon as he became aware of allegations about the program.
"I accept the responsibility of my action," he said. "When I knew [something] was wrong, I took action."
Gagliano repeated an assertion, made in his first day of testimony Thursday, that he sought advice about whether to call police when the auditor's interim report revealed violations of Treasury Board guidelines for issuing contracts.
* FROM MARCH 18, 2004: Gagliano denies blame for sponsorship scandal
He said police were not contacted because he'd been assured that the matter was an "administrative" problem.
Gagliano said Friday that he and former deputy minister Ran Quail had jointly decided to order the audit.
However, Gagliano acknowledged that he had only read an executive summary of the report, not the actual document, before seeking advice on whether there was evidence of criminal activity.
Liberal MP Shawn Murphy attacked Gagliano's protests of innocence, saying that defence only hurt his credibility as a minister.
"You can't have it both ways. The more innocent you are, the more incompetent you appear," said Murphy.
Gagliano responded by defending the actions he took, and accused the committee of looking for a scapegoat.
"I've been telling you what happened but you don't want to believe me," he said.
"I'm a competent minister because I acted when I was informed that there was a problem and I fixed it."
posted on March 20, 2004 12:46:09 PM new
Wow, thanks Twelve for taking an interest in what Canada's doing, even though you said you don't give a hoot about other countries.
You're right! Canada has just as many problems as every other country does. Good detective work sweetheart!
