| Subject: GroupAction Ex VP |
Author:
Fears For Life
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Date Posted: 10:14:31 03/05/04 Fri
Author Host/IP: 209.53.124.83.connected.bc.ca/209.53.124.83
The Liberal Party machine seems to be rotten through and through. Is there any government cheese that isn't one big hole ?!
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Former Groupaction VP Alain Richard says he raised concerns about irregularities within his firm five years ago and went to the police, but nothing was done. Now Richard fears for his personal safety.
Richard told Canada AM Thursday he alerted RCMP years ago that Groupaction was creating invoices that claimed he worked hundreds of hours on specific government contracts.
"Those hours billed under my name, I never actually worked. I never actually worked on those accounts," Richard explained.
Nonetheless, the federal government seems to have paid Groupaction for this alleged work.
Richard says shortly after he started asking questions about the allegedly phony invoices, he was let go from the firm.
"I was asking questions that every vice-president of every company should ask. The numbers weren't adding up. And one day I received a paper at night saying, 'Don't show yourself at the office the next morning.'"
Richard says as soon as he started speaking out about Groupaction's shady accounting and invoicing, he began receiving threats to his safety.
"I'm getting pressure all over the place -- phone calls, anonymous phone calls, letters of anonymous sources -- and nobody is protecting me."
"Who do I talk to? The RCMP? Who do I talk to? Who is protecting me as a taxpayer? Who is protecting the taxpayers across Canada? If we cannot trust our police, cannot trust our government, there's definitely something wrong with the system."
Richard added that he has had to hire his own bodyguards to ensure his safety.
The RCMP began an investigation of the alleged time sheets and invoices after raiding Groupaction's offices in 2002. Shortly after, the advertising firm was dragged into the national spotlight when Auditor General Sheila Fraser concluded that the company was paid $1.6-million to produce two incomplete reports and one missing report.
Richard says he's glad his former employer is now under the media and criminal spotlight, but he says he doesn't understand what took so long.
"I have been saying all of that for six years, to the police for at least two years, and nothing's moving.
"So now it's a big story and it's going to take 12 more months to settle this. This is ridiculous! It can be settled tomorrow. All the proof is in the police hands."
Groupaction has consistently denied wrongdoing.
In fact, the ad agency is accusing public servants of losing or "systematically eliminating" documents that prove it conducted all the work it was hired by the sponsorship program to do. Groupaction says it provided a post-mortem report for every sponsorship and federal contract it obtained.
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