Canada MPs quiz former minister

By Lee Carter
BBC correspondent in Toronto

Gagliano was submitted to intense grilling by MPs

A Canadian parliamentary committee has been hearing testimony from a former public works minister at the centre of a corruption scandal.

Alphonso Gagliano was in office when an estimated US$75m was paid to firms with ties to the governing Liberal Party in exchange for little or no work.

But the former minister says he had no idea of wrongdoing in his department.

The scandal has led to a sharp drop in support for the Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin.

For weeks, Mr Gagliano's name has been synonymous with Canada's sponsorship scandal.

I never had the control over my department that would have given me the ability to answer for all that went on Alphonso Gagliano

He was fired as the country's ambassador to Denmark last month, when a damning report by the auditor-general was released.

But he told the all-party committee that he knew nothing about the misspent money, and blamed the corruption on a small group of bureaucrats in his ministry.

"I never had the control or power over my department that would have given me the ability to answer for all that went on with them," he said.

You're telling us today that you were essentially just a finger puppet of your own department Peter McKay MP

The programme now under scrutiny was designed to promote Canadian unity in French-speaking Quebec, by having the federal government sponsor cultural and sporting events.

But instead, millions of dollars were siphoned off by a group of Quebec communications agencies in fees and commissions.

In January, the auditor-general's report said the programme broke every rule in the book in the way contracts were awarded.

Responsibility

Mr Gagliano came under sustained questioning by members of the committee.

Opposition Conservative MPs, such as Peter McKay, were particularly scathing.

Martin has inherited an embarrassing scandal

"You're telling us today that you were essentially just a finger puppet of your own department, that you had no control over the sponsorship programme," he said.

Mr Gagliano said he objected to that characterisation.

Questioned by the committee later, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser said there was some oral evidence of intervention in the sponsorship programme by the minister's office, but no paper trail.

"There was a flagrant lack of documentation throughout the files," she said.

Ms Fraser said that if Mr Gagliano did not know about the abuse going on in his department, then perhaps it might be time to consider what ministerial responsibility meant.

Mr Martin has delayed a decision on whether to hold a general election until more information about the scandal is uncovered by investigators.