B.C. Liberals handing out pro-HST contracts to companies friendly to the party

It seems the governing Liberals in British Columbia are the latest political party to take part in the age-old political practice of handing contracts to friends and insiders.

The Globe and Mail reported untendered government contracts totalling more than $250,000 relating to the pro-HST campaign have been doled out to companies with close ties to the Liberal party.

Campaign Research Ltd., which worked on cabinet minister George Abbott's unsuccessful campaign for the Liberal leadership, received $167,800 for conducting the government's telephone town hall meetings on the HST.

Another $52,746.75 went to Backbone Technology Inc. to develop the province's HST information website. Backbone has worked for the Liberals since 2001 developing their website and executive Intranet.

Internal government guidelines would normally have required those contracts to be awarded via competitive bids but, like so often is the case, the government is citing a loophole.

The guidelines, the Globe learned, allow that competitive bid process to be circumvented and contracts awarded without public notice, if it would "compromise government confidentiality."

This story is, on a considerably smaller scale, akin to the Ontario Liberals' eHealth scandal in 2009 which saw $16 million in untendered contracts paid to consultants with government affiliations.

At one point, the eHealth program branch had fewer than 30 full-time employees but was engaging more than 300 consultants who billed taxpayers up to $2,750 a day.

In 2006, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's ethics came into question when his office awarded a $122,000 contract for communications help in the preparation of the 2007 budget.

That contract was awarded without a competitive tendering process to a firm that supported Flaherty on two failed bids to win the leadership of the Ontario Tories.

At the time, Flaherty's office stated "administrative errors" were made in the awarding of the $122,000 contract.

And who can forget the infamous federal Liberal sponsorship scandal that saw millions of tax dollars handed out to Liberal friends with virtually no rules and no accountability?

Like the old adage goes - in politics it's not what you know, it's who you know.

(Reuters Photo)