Quebec company got millions, but what did Ottawa get?
Last Updated Mon May 20 22:30:48 2002
OTTAWA - Groupe Polygone, until recently a little-known Quebec company, received almost $40 million or nearly one fifth of all federal government sponsorship funds in the past five years.
Don Boudria
But there are questions about just what Ottawa got for its cash. For example, the federal government paid more than $1 million to show the flag at a Montreal hunting and fishing show last March, while ignoring a much bigger but similar show in Toronto.
And while the Toronto show charged $100,000 for maximum visibility, the Department of Public Works paid ten times that amount for the same exposure at the Montreal show.
Public Works minister Don Boudria was not available to comment, but his office said its reviewing all sponsorship contracts with Groupe Polygone and will not spend so much on next year's fair.
The department's internal auditors found problems with the sponsorship contracts two years ago, documents obtained through access to information show. The auditors asked why Ottawa spent $2.9 million to sponsor six hunting and fishing fairs in Quebec in 1998, even though there was no request for the money and no project description on the file.
'Don't ask'
A civil servant who inquired about the absence of paperwork says she was told "don't ask."
Public Works can't explain the missing files, and says it tightened up the sponsorship rules after the audit. But then it went and spent the $1 million with Polygone last year.
Polygone also publishes a Quebec almanac. Last year, it charged Ottawa 25 times the amount it charged the Quebec government for similar space.
Ottawa's ads were placed with Polygone by Groupaction, the Quebec ad agency at the centre of the auditor general Sheila Fraser's recent report into purchase of sponsorships in Quebec with virtually no controls or paperwork.
FROM MAY 9, 2002: Auditor general refers Liberal contracts to RCMP for investigation:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/05/08/fraser_report020508
She recommended, and the government agreed, the RCMP investigate. Groupaction contributed to the Liberal Party, which led opposition politicians to claim the contracts and the contributions were connected.
TIMELINE: Alfonso Gagliano and the Groupaction Inc. contracts:
http://cbc.ca/news/features/groupaction.html
When Parliament resumes sitting Tuesday, allegations of corruption are expected to be high on the opposition agenda, fueled by a recent survey that shows 45 per cent of those polled believe the Liberals are corrupt. Virtually the same proportion, 46 per cent, told pollster Pollara Inc. they don't believe that.
Written by CBC News Online staff
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/partnerview.cgi?story=/news/2002/05/20/polygone020520^layout=MSN
Bookkeeping is a Dangerous Business
The Italian community abroad is vulnerable to infiltration by its criminal countrymen. That doesn't mean that every Sicilian is a mafioso. Far from it. The most arduous mafia-fighters, like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, are often Sicilian. Evertheless, mafiosi use the Italian communities to hide in, especially when they are from the same village or region on Sicily.
On a visit to Siculiana - the village on the south coast of Sicily where the ****reras and Caruanas were born - an elderly villager who spent most of his working life in Germany told me the story of how he was approached by a ****rera to 'lend' him his son. The man who had known the family when they still lived in Siculiana, did not think it was a good idea. Why, he would not tell. Nevertheless, it was clear what we were talking about.
Siculiana once counted 12,000 inhabitants; now there are only 5,000 left. During the 1950s and 1960s the village emptied, the men moved to Belgium, Germany, England, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil. Most were merely trying to make a living; others went for more sinister reasons. Some, like Alfonso Gagliano, representative in the Canadian Federal Parliament for Montreal's 'Little Italy' Saint Leonard, rose to prominent positions.
The accountant Gagliano is a loyal supporter of Canada's Prime-Minister Jean Chrétien. Gagliano organized the Liberal Party's fund raising for the 1993 election-campaign. He was a candidate for a position in the new government of Mr Chrétien. The RCMP is asked to screen every probable future minister, and Mr Gagliano didn't quite pass the test. (65) The Montreal daily La Presse revealed why: Gagliano's accountancy firm kept the books of Agostino ****rera, a nephew of Pasquale ****rera and implicated in the murder of Paolo Violi, boss of the local Cotroni-family, in 1978. The murder was a sign that the Sicilian clan had taken over control in Montreal. Agostino ****rera was never convicted; he struck a deal with the Canadian Justice Department.
Asked about his relationship with Agostino ****rera, Gagliano said: 'Mr ****rera is an acquaintance. We both come from Siculiana. I met him during a engagement in a church. He came to me in the 1970's when he wanted me as his bookkeeper for his restaurant.' Gagliano et Cie kept Agostino ****rera as a client after his complicity in the Violi-murder was revealed. Agostino ****rera and Gagliano saw each other occasionally during marriages and activities of the Association de Siculiana, a cultural association founded by Mr Gagliano, who was its first president. Some years after Mr Gagliano's chairmanship, Agostino ****rera became president of the association.
Nor was Agostino ****rera the only client of Gagliano. Another was Dima Messina, the financial aid of Montreal Mafia-boss Vito Rizzuto. An RCMP investigation showed that Messina laundered 22 million Canadian dollars for Rizzuto in 1986-88. Rizzuto's Ferrari Testarossa (a 250,000 dollar Italian sports car) was registered under Messina's name.
During the controlled delivery of 58 kilos of heroin to Montreal in 1985 - the RCMP and British Customs were aware of the traffic and closely watched the transactions - one of the traffickers, Filippo Vaccarello, and an unidentified person, were observed entering the office of Mr Gagliano before the heroin arrived. After leaving the office Vaccarello proceeded with a tour of notorious bars well-known as selling points for heroin.
Bookkeeping proves to be a sensitive business for a politician. When the matter was discussed in Parliament after La Presse disclosed the facts, Premier Chrétien declared: 'This Parliament would be much better off if we had more Gagliano's.' (66)
http://www.tni.org/archives/tblick/aruba.htm
Corruption Links:
http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=Alfonso Gagliano corruption&hc=0&hs=0
http://207.216.246.197/archive/report/20011203/p17i011203f.html
Last Updated Mon May 20 22:30:48 2002
OTTAWA - Groupe Polygone, until recently a little-known Quebec company, received almost $40 million or nearly one fifth of all federal government sponsorship funds in the past five years.
Don Boudria
But there are questions about just what Ottawa got for its cash. For example, the federal government paid more than $1 million to show the flag at a Montreal hunting and fishing show last March, while ignoring a much bigger but similar show in Toronto.
And while the Toronto show charged $100,000 for maximum visibility, the Department of Public Works paid ten times that amount for the same exposure at the Montreal show.
Public Works minister Don Boudria was not available to comment, but his office said its reviewing all sponsorship contracts with Groupe Polygone and will not spend so much on next year's fair.
The department's internal auditors found problems with the sponsorship contracts two years ago, documents obtained through access to information show. The auditors asked why Ottawa spent $2.9 million to sponsor six hunting and fishing fairs in Quebec in 1998, even though there was no request for the money and no project description on the file.
'Don't ask'
A civil servant who inquired about the absence of paperwork says she was told "don't ask."
Public Works can't explain the missing files, and says it tightened up the sponsorship rules after the audit. But then it went and spent the $1 million with Polygone last year.
Polygone also publishes a Quebec almanac. Last year, it charged Ottawa 25 times the amount it charged the Quebec government for similar space.
Ottawa's ads were placed with Polygone by Groupaction, the Quebec ad agency at the centre of the auditor general Sheila Fraser's recent report into purchase of sponsorships in Quebec with virtually no controls or paperwork.
FROM MAY 9, 2002: Auditor general refers Liberal contracts to RCMP for investigation:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/05/08/fraser_report020508
She recommended, and the government agreed, the RCMP investigate. Groupaction contributed to the Liberal Party, which led opposition politicians to claim the contracts and the contributions were connected.
TIMELINE: Alfonso Gagliano and the Groupaction Inc. contracts:
http://cbc.ca/news/features/groupaction.html
When Parliament resumes sitting Tuesday, allegations of corruption are expected to be high on the opposition agenda, fueled by a recent survey that shows 45 per cent of those polled believe the Liberals are corrupt. Virtually the same proportion, 46 per cent, told pollster Pollara Inc. they don't believe that.
Written by CBC News Online staff
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/partnerview.cgi?story=/news/2002/05/20/polygone020520^layout=MSN
Bookkeeping is a Dangerous Business
The Italian community abroad is vulnerable to infiltration by its criminal countrymen. That doesn't mean that every Sicilian is a mafioso. Far from it. The most arduous mafia-fighters, like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, are often Sicilian. Evertheless, mafiosi use the Italian communities to hide in, especially when they are from the same village or region on Sicily.
On a visit to Siculiana - the village on the south coast of Sicily where the ****reras and Caruanas were born - an elderly villager who spent most of his working life in Germany told me the story of how he was approached by a ****rera to 'lend' him his son. The man who had known the family when they still lived in Siculiana, did not think it was a good idea. Why, he would not tell. Nevertheless, it was clear what we were talking about.
Siculiana once counted 12,000 inhabitants; now there are only 5,000 left. During the 1950s and 1960s the village emptied, the men moved to Belgium, Germany, England, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil. Most were merely trying to make a living; others went for more sinister reasons. Some, like Alfonso Gagliano, representative in the Canadian Federal Parliament for Montreal's 'Little Italy' Saint Leonard, rose to prominent positions.
The accountant Gagliano is a loyal supporter of Canada's Prime-Minister Jean Chrétien. Gagliano organized the Liberal Party's fund raising for the 1993 election-campaign. He was a candidate for a position in the new government of Mr Chrétien. The RCMP is asked to screen every probable future minister, and Mr Gagliano didn't quite pass the test. (65) The Montreal daily La Presse revealed why: Gagliano's accountancy firm kept the books of Agostino ****rera, a nephew of Pasquale ****rera and implicated in the murder of Paolo Violi, boss of the local Cotroni-family, in 1978. The murder was a sign that the Sicilian clan had taken over control in Montreal. Agostino ****rera was never convicted; he struck a deal with the Canadian Justice Department.
Asked about his relationship with Agostino ****rera, Gagliano said: 'Mr ****rera is an acquaintance. We both come from Siculiana. I met him during a engagement in a church. He came to me in the 1970's when he wanted me as his bookkeeper for his restaurant.' Gagliano et Cie kept Agostino ****rera as a client after his complicity in the Violi-murder was revealed. Agostino ****rera and Gagliano saw each other occasionally during marriages and activities of the Association de Siculiana, a cultural association founded by Mr Gagliano, who was its first president. Some years after Mr Gagliano's chairmanship, Agostino ****rera became president of the association.
Nor was Agostino ****rera the only client of Gagliano. Another was Dima Messina, the financial aid of Montreal Mafia-boss Vito Rizzuto. An RCMP investigation showed that Messina laundered 22 million Canadian dollars for Rizzuto in 1986-88. Rizzuto's Ferrari Testarossa (a 250,000 dollar Italian sports car) was registered under Messina's name.
During the controlled delivery of 58 kilos of heroin to Montreal in 1985 - the RCMP and British Customs were aware of the traffic and closely watched the transactions - one of the traffickers, Filippo Vaccarello, and an unidentified person, were observed entering the office of Mr Gagliano before the heroin arrived. After leaving the office Vaccarello proceeded with a tour of notorious bars well-known as selling points for heroin.
Bookkeeping proves to be a sensitive business for a politician. When the matter was discussed in Parliament after La Presse disclosed the facts, Premier Chrétien declared: 'This Parliament would be much better off if we had more Gagliano's.' (66)
http://www.tni.org/archives/tblick/aruba.htm
Corruption Links:
http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=Alfonso Gagliano corruption&hc=0&hs=0
http://207.216.246.197/archive/report/20011203/p17i011203f.html
Comment