Canada Free Press -- ARCHIVES

Because without America, there is no free world.

Return to Canada Free Press

COVER STORY

No accounting for $461,000 paid to Crombie consultants on Olympic bid

by Judi McLeod, Editor
April, 1999

Three of five core consultants, who spent $461,000 without providing a breakdown or receipts for undisclosed work on the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid, were on the payroll of the David Crombie Water Regeneration Trust (WRT), Our Toronto has learned.

"Mr. (Jeff) Evanson, Ms. (Karen) Pitre and Mr. (Sean) Goetz-Gadon are employees of the WRT. Were they receiving their normal salary from WRT while working on the 2008 bid and receiving consulting fees," Coun. Mike Walker asks in a report to come before city council in mid-April.

Core Consultants' funds used totalled $461,558.00, and to date there has been no accounting of these funds clearly describing who received them, in what amounts and what services were actually performed for the payments.

Walker and businessman Harold Perry, Chairman of the Toronto Harbour Commission, are pressing Toronto Olympic Bid and WRT Chair David Crombie for answers.

"I trust that you will undertake to shed light on the vagueness in your financial reporting," Perry wrote Crombie in a letter dated March 8.

Counsel for the Harbour Commission, Symon Zucker has intermittently been assured that disclosure will be made. Mr. Zucker advises Our Toronto that to date the only paper he has seen are the assurances.

Perry said he and the harbour commissioners are "custodians of the taxpayers' interests" with a "fiduciary responsibility to pursue this information and receive answers in a timely way."

Originally, Crombie insisted that the answers Walker and Perry are seeking is a matter of "public information", but he later backed away from saying that answers are already public, telling a Toronto Star reporter that a detailed breakdown of costs will be included in a report to be given to city council in April.

Walker, who was the only one of the 57-member council to vote against the Toronto Olympic bid, is insisting the bid lives up to its "squeaky clean" promise.

In his report to council, he's done his homework: "I bring before you today copies of a contract signed between Mr. Mahmood El Farnawani, Mr. Carlos Garcia, Consul for Uruguay here in Toronto, and the Waterfront Regeneration Trust (WRT). WRT hired Mr. El Farnawani and Garcia as consultants, and a copy of a report carried out by Mr. El Farnawani and Mr. Garcia, on developing a strategy for the 2008 Olympic Bid.”

According to Walker, the documents have raised "a significant number of questions that, in light of the current IOC scandal, the 1996 Olympic Bid scandal, and the innumerable promises made by T.O.-Bid that the 2008 bid would be open, transparent and "squeaky clean", demand immediate attention, and in my opinion, a forensic audit."

The north-end councillor says the public has a right to know "under what authority was the WRT able to formally be involved in contracts for an Olympic bid?"

“In the contract between Mr. El Farnawani and Garcia and the WRT, what does Mr. Evanson mean by considerable experience attaining and retaining IOC member support?”

In a letter to El Farnawani and Garcia signed by Jeff Evanson on Nov. 30, 1997, Evanson told both parties "the report should also provide strategic advice based on your considerable experience in the matter of attaining and retaining IOC members' support for the Toronto bid.

El Farnawani was paid $160,000 by Salt Lake City for help in winning the votes of IOC delegates to get the 2002 winter games, and was also involved in trying to win votes for Toronto's failed 1996 bid. A report into vote-buying filed by IOC vice-president Dick Pound also names El Farnawani.

The combo of El Farnawani and Garcia were paid $72,000 in consulting fees, with El Farnawani receiving an additional $47,309 in expenses.

"They gave massive amounts to inside people...and are trying to sweep the initial money (for consultants and expenses) under the table," says Perry.

Walker is probing whether it was even "appropriate for T.O.-Bid to engage Mr. Garcia, Consul for Uruguay to act as a lobbyist for this type of undertaking and does that action comply with the federal Corruption of Public Officials Act."

He is further demanding to know why the actual contract was GST free, when the contract is associated with an Olympic bid.

The El Farnawani-Garcia report to Evanson was only six pages long, its presentation was poor, and much of the information contained in it was obvious, for example, "attractive uniforms for teams going abroad."

"Why did it cost $72,000?" Walker wants to know.

"What does Mr. Garcia mean when he states: 'Everybody I talk to knows that "great resources" are needed to bid successfully for a summer Olympic Games'?

"These 'great resources' are openly expected in all circles. Not having them could very well mean failure," Garcia wrote in the report.

Garcia alludes to a "meeting next week" in a February 13, 1998 report. "Where are the minutes of that meeting," Walker wonders.

The Core Consultant category, the largest amount billed by any group only lists the names of the consultants. It does not show how much each of them billed, nor the nature of their work.

"Previously, Mr. Evanson stated Mr. El Farnawani did not bill any expenses and was only provided with an air ticket to Seville, Spain AND that while there they did not see Mr. El Farnawani, downplaying his role as minor.

"Source and Use of Funds indicates Mr. El Farnawani was paid $47,309 in expenses including reimbursements for four air tickets (cost: $23,246 total or $5,811.50 per ticket) for Mr. El Farnawani, David Crombie, Karen Pitre and Claire Potvin.

"Now, which is it. No expenses, received one ticket, didn’t see him the whole time, OR $47,309 in expenses, bought all four of the tickets, organized the whole thing?

"Evanson, Pitre, and Goetz-Gadon are employees of the WRT. Were they receiving their normal salary from WRT while working on the 2008 bid and receiving consulting fees," asks Walker.

Walker says that "T.O.-Bid may be getting a lot more press in the near future for having used Mr. El Farnawani as a consultant. It is better that T.O-Bid have Mr. Dubin, or an independent auditor investigate this now, rather than being pushed into an investigation further down the line when the bid and the reputation of the organizers and the City itself may be jeopardized."

In late March, Crombie's Waterfront Regeneration Trust lost its status as a provincial crown corporation. At the insistence of the provincial government, the Trust is going private.

In July of 1997, Our Toronto telephoned Crombie regarding a major development in Niagara Falls, New York, after the Niagara Gazette reported that the Ontario Waterfront Regeneration Trust was providing "extensive local research" for the $140-million downtown redevelopment scheme.

At that time Crombie told Our Toronto that the Trust could be a corporate participant in the development scheme because it had been privatized.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com



Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Privacy Statement