QUEBEC CITY – Quebec’s anti-corruption squad and the Auditor General will determine if documents in the Transport Ministry were falsified, confirmed Jean-Denis Girard, Liberal MNA and Vice-chair of the Committee on Public Administration (CAP).
In a letter addressed to committee chair and PQ MNA Carole Poirier, Annie Trudel, a former Transport Ministry analyst hired to investigate allegations flagged by former Transport Minister Robert Poëti, said that documents attributed to her were modified.
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The letter was published by a Quebec City radio station on its website early Wednesday.
In May, UPAC opened ten investigations related to corruption in the province’s transport department.
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In her resignation letter, Trudel said her work was hampered, and in some cases even “sabotaged” by senior officials and she that she confronted resistance throughout her 18 months at the ministry.
WATCH BELOW: Quebec’s anti-corruption agency opened ten files investigating contracts related to the province’s transport department. Global’s Raquel Fletcher reports.
Poëti was demoted in January during the cabinet shuffle in order to, according to Couillard, make room for more women and young people.
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L’actualité magazine reported that in early May that Poëti had discovered Transport Ministry employees were being intimidated by their superiors and that embarrassing cost overruns on public projects were hidden.
The magazine also reported that former employees were given no-bid contracts worth slightly under $25,000 — the legal limit that triggers a call for tenders.
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“I think the best thing to do with perception is to be transparent,” said Transport Minister Jacques Daoust at the time.
“I want to be very transparent.”
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Two weeks ago, Daoust said he forwarded a USB key to Quebec’s corruption agency with documentation he received from Poëti.