INDEPTH: SPONSORSHIP SCANDAL
Didn't ask for 'phoney invoices'
CBC News Online | May 4, 2005
Chuck Guité, the former head of the sponsorship program, denied that he or anyone on his staff asked advertising firms to pad invoices charged to the controversial sponsorship program.
During his five days of testimony, Guité said he never once asked ad executive Paul Coffin to submit inflated or phoney invoices.
"Absolutely not that I would tell an agency to create a false invoice," he replied emphatically.
In April, Paul Coffin, head of Coffin Communications, admitted that he repeatedly produced fake invoices and overbilled the federal government for thousands of dollars for work that was never done on sponsorship projects.
Production costs "were billed to the last cent, even before the event had taken place," lead counsel Bernard Roy reminded Guité.
With Guité's blessing, Coffin added that he would bill for the full amount allotted in the sponsorship budgets, fabricating invoices along the way.
Coffin said budget levels for sponsorship projects were decided by Guité or his successor, Pierre Tremblay.
Guité rejected those allegations. He said it was the other way around. Guité said it was the ad firms that decided how much money they needed to put together for a sponsorship event.
"There was nobody on my staff that had the skills, abilities or whatever to produce production budgets, "he told Roy.
Guité said he trusted agencies to deliver services for the money they were paid.
Coffin testified that he would typically get a phone call at the end of the fiscal year, most notably from Huguette Tremblay, Guité's trusted aide, telling him there was money left in the budget.
Tremblay would ask them to send along invoices, Coffin said. "Whether we were expected to do it or not, we would do it," Coffin told the inquiry.
Guité was adamant that neither he nor Huguette Tremblay, had anything to do with this.
"I find it appalling that a businessman who has been in business for 40 years would call Chuck Guité to create an invoice. End of comment," Guité replied.
Coffin also told the inquiry that he billed the sponsorship program for subcontractors, hiding the fact that his firm had only two employees. Guité said he knew nothing about that.
The former bureaucrat admitted it was a very hectic time in his shop after the sponsorship program was created and things went by the wayside.
"I would get, some days, fifty to sixty invoices to sign. They arrived on my desk and if they were stamped with an initial by Madame Tremblay who would confirm that there was a budget, a contract and money in the budget, I signed it. In retrospect, I admit it was a pretty loose system. I admit it."
^TOP
|
|
 |
 MENU |
|
|
| EXTERNAL LINKS: |
|
|
| MORE: |
|
|
|
Gilles Duceppe's response (RealVideo runs 5:59)
CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. Links will open in new window.
