Ombudsman finds conflict-of-interest in fire hall build in West St. Paul
Teghan Beaudette | CBC News | Posted: December 10, 2015 6:42 PM | Last Updated: December 10, 2015
Manitoba Ombudsman tasks community with revamping its conflict of interest rules after controversial contract
The Manitoba Ombudsman has ruled on a controversial conflict-of-interest case in West St. Paul involving a $3-million fire hall.
This week, the Ombudsman found a councillor was in a conflict of interest after his brother's company was tasked with building a fire hall in the community.
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It also found the RM council's tendering process wasn't fair, and the RM's own policy about conflict of interest wasn't followed.
It started in 2009, when the Mayor, Bruce Henley, sat down with firefighters to talk about building a new fire hall in the community.
After that, the RM's council created a small committee to deal with the $3-million project, but one of the councillors at the time, Dan Garcea, was already consulting with his brother and his brother's construction company about the plans.
Garcea, another councillor and the RM's CAO were all on the committee – and Garcea suggested they appoint a "volunteer consultant" to help figure out the project.
By 2012, only one person had volunteered – Dan Garcea's brother, John, who owned S & J Construction or the "Garcea Group of Companies." So John was added to the committee that would help review bids.
The RM got two bids, and ultimately went with John Garcea's company – where Dan was also an employee.
Multiple people raised concerns over the contract, and the Ombudsman revealed in its report certain details of the bid (like the name of who was bidding) was struck out and replaced with a "limited company" name.
Mayor attacked outside his home
What followed was a contentious mayoral campaign – Garcea ran against Henley, and during the campaign Henley was attacked outside his home by a group of masked assailants.
He believes the controversy over the fire hall and the attack were connected.
He filed a report with RCMP, but to date, no charges have been laid.
Henley was re-elected and Garcea is no longer a council member, and now, the Ombudsman has made a series of recommendations to make sure similar incidents don't happen again.
"The RM had an obligation to ensure a tendering process that was fair, open, transparent and competitive," the report reads. "The evidence shows this did not occur."
The Ombudsman recommended the council train its council and staff about conflicts of interest and tendering projects. It also recommended the RM develop a policy for dealing with conflicts of interest, as well as improve its record-taking at meetings and make sure all tendering rules are followed in the future.
The RM has already taken steps to deal with the recommendations, including publicly posting the tendering process online and giving education sessions on conflict of interest to its staff.
The Ombudsman's investigation was spurred by six anonymous complaints, and it raised several issues with how past projects were dealt with in the community – including a 2007 concrete job that involved the same companies and councillor.
"The issues raised in this investigation are serious, and the RM council needs to review its actions in light of our findings," the report reads.
"The municipality is expected to undergo a significant period of growth and public and private investment will be a large part of that expansion," it adds.
Corrections:- An earlier version of this story said the Ombudsman ruled on the conflict-of-interest case in West St. Paul involving the $3-million fire hall, an alleged group-attack on the RM's mayor and an election bid. In fact, the Ombudsman's review focused solely on administrative matters including conflicts of interest in relation to the tendering and construction of a new fire hall for the RM. December 10, 2015 9:12 PM