$2 billion lost when Canadian procurement reform deal died

09 Nov 2010

Source: The Chronicle Herald

The Canadian federal government walked away from almost $2 billion in savings when it backed down from procurement reforms in 2006, says a former senior adviser who was forced out in what looks to have been a dirty tricks campaign. David Rotor, who recently won a wrongful dismissal case against the federal government, was hired away from a high-paying private sector job in 2006 to find ways for Ottawa to save hundreds of millions in its huge, inefficient purchasing process.

"I was hired to generate $2.5 billion over five years," Rotor said. "At the end of the day, I think they credited the program with about $600 million. So, that’s a $2-billion loss by removing me and killing the program. And it wasn’t that difficult to do it. I was about 50 per cent ahead of target and about 50 per cent under budget."

The most recent report from the Public Works Department contains no mention of what happened to the planned savings, and although a spokeswoman for Minister Rona Ambrose says the government has acted to improve procurement, she couldn’t say this week what happened to the projected savings.

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