NDP seeking probe of Hydro non-bid

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This article was published 23/09/2020 (1555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP is asking Manitoba’s auditor general to investigate alleged government interference in the operations of a Manitoba Hydro subsidiary and the role a senior provincial bureaucrat reportedly played in preventing it from bidding on a lucrative provincial contract.

In a letter to auditor general Tyson Shtykalo, the New Democrats say the government prevented Manitoba Hydro International from bidding on a data network contract that came due earlier this year.

The Progressive Conservative government instead awarded Bell MTS, the existing contract holder, an additional 30-month term, valued at $37.5 million, without a competition. Bell MTS had held the contract for the past 10 years.

Under the Manitoba Data Network contract, Bell MTS provides interoffice connectivity to more than 600 provincial offices.

New Democrats want Shtykalo to investigate the role played by Treasury Board secretary Paul Beauregard in discouraging MHI from applying for the contract. Internal Hydro emails, which recently came to light, indicate Beauregard had discouraged the corporation from participating in a planned request for proposal.

Beauregard was once a former executive of both Manitoba Telecom Service Inc. and BCE Bell Canada.

“Mr. Beauregard, as of May 2017, owned thousands of shares in MTS corporation, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to the NDP letter to the auditor general signed by MLA Adrien Sala, party critic for Manitoba Hydro.

Sala said Premier Brian Pallister also stated in the legislature in October of that year Beauregard had recused himself from decisions related to the two companies he formerly worked for: Bell and MTS.

In a statement to the Free Press, Shtykalo confirmed he had received a request from the NDP to conduct an investigation involving Manitoba Hydro International.

“I am conducting a preliminary review of this request. At this point I cannot comment on whether this will result in an investigation by my office,” the auditor general said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca