2024-03-12 04:00:00
Claiming to want to protect “personal information,” Investissement Québec (IQ) refuses to reveal in which businesses its employees use their corporate credit cards. It is therefore impossible to know whether they choose to dine at Thaï Express or at Toqué with taxpayers’ money.
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In response to a request for access to information, IQ provided the Journal a list of transactions made with its corporate credit cards over the last three years, but taking care to redact all suppliers.
The state-owned company, headed for a month by Bicha Ngo, refuses to reveal in which businesses nearly $3 million in purchases are made per year.
However, Investissement Québec is not immune to questionable expenses. In February, The newspaper revealed that an employee meeting with alcohol and a DJ held in November had cost $115,000. The organization did not want to say if there was a link between this party and the dismissal of vice-president Jocelyn Beauchesne, also in November.
According to IQ, the airline an employee chooses or the store they buy office equipment from is personal information.
The head of access to information at IQ, Danielle Vivier, suggests that “through the names of suppliers and transaction dates, it would be possible to follow an employee on the move”.
“In other cases, the name of a supplier helps identify its precise location, near an employee’s residence,” she adds.
Moreover, The Journal never asked for the name of the employee who made each of the 42,395 transactions to appear.
Investissement Québec has hidden the names of all suppliers, including for expenses of several thousand dollars. Document provided by Investissement Québec
IQ CREDIT CARD PURCHASES
- 2021: 6677 transactions – 1,08 M$
- 2022: 17 541 transactions — 3,23 M$
- 2023: 18 176 transactions — 3 M$
Against the law
According to Nicholas Jobidon, professor at the National School of Public Administration (ENAP), the “name of a state supplier should not be confidential information”.
This way of doing things does not “respect the spirit of the Act respecting contracts by public bodies”.
“Article 2 of the law says that we want to promote transparency in public procurement and the awarding of contracts. It says it in black and white,” recalls the expert lawyer in public contracts. “The aim of the law is to ensure that public funds are not mismanaged, that among other things there is no collusion, corruption or patronage.”
Since 2008, this law has required organizations to make public any contract over $25,000.
However, it is not because the “contracts” paid by credit card are for less than $25,000 that they can remain secret, judges Mr. Jobidon.
“The use of credit cards must respect the main principles of public procurement law: administrative efficiency, yes, but also public confidence in the awarding of contracts and transparency in contractual processes,” explains the teacher.
According to the information provided, IQ has made 29 purchases of more than $10,000 with its credit cards since 2021, including eight for plane tickets.
The highest expense, which is in the “Trade shows, exhibitions and events” category, is $22,877.29.
Last month, The newspaper revealed the extent to which certain public bodies broadly interpret the Access to Documents Act in order to refuse to hand over numerous documents.
No bills either
In addition to hiding the names of its suppliers, Investissement Québec refuses to provide invoices for its most expensive business meals, gifts and plane tickets.
In 2023 alone, IQ spent $645,000 on airline tickets and $361,000 on business meals, making them the two largest categories when it comes to credit card purchases.
Among the 42,395 transactions appearing in the list provided by Investissement Québec, we find nearly one hundred “business meals” and around thirty “gifts – staff” for more than $1,000.
The most expensive business meal cost $6,841.01 on March 17, 2022 and a “recognition gift” purchased in May 2023 cost exactly $10,000.
The Journal tried to find out more regarding these expensive meals and gifts as well as the plane tickets that cost more than $10,000, but IQ refused to provide us with invoices and other supporting documents.
These documents would make it possible, for example, to know the name of the restaurants frequented, the number of guests and the dishes ordered for business meals, or even, in the case of a plane ticket, the name of the company. airline or destination.
The organization once once more claims that this is personal information, “particularly on the way in which credit card holders carry out their functions”.
The state-owned company also judges that certain information constitutes “industrial secrets”.
It is thanks to similar invoices that many spending scandals have come to light.
For example, in the early 2000s, former Quebec Lieutenant Governor Lise Thibault charged taxpayers for fees at several restaurants on the same evening.
– With Nicolas Brasseur and Charles Mathieu
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