NDP Asks Merit Commissioner to Investigate Contract Awarded to B.C. Liberal Insider

VICTORIA—NDP Finance critic Bruce Ralston is asking B.C.’s Merit Commissioner to investigate a government contract awarded to a B.C. Liberal friend and insider.

“This is about whether public agencies will be stacked with B.C. Liberal friends and insiders, or whether they will serve the public interest with appointments based on merit instead of political connections,” said Ralston, the NDP MLA for Surrey-Whalley.

The Vancouver-based firm Ray & Berndtson/Tanton Mitchell was awarded a two-year, renewable contract for executive recruitment services for the Board Resourcing Development Office (BRDO) effective August 1, 2006. The BRDO makes non-partisan, merit-based appointments to BC government agencies across the province, including the Agricultural Land Commission.

“The principles of Ray & Berndtson are B.C. Liberal friends and insiders, joined at the political hip with Gordon Campbell,” said Ralston. “They have made big financial contributions to the B.C. Liberal party, they have entered into private contracts with the B.C. Liberal Party, and they have been political supporters of the Premier throughout his career.”

Ralston added that the firm’s political connections make it almost impossible for the firm to meet the mandate of non-partisanship of the BRDO. “This is one of the firms that had a private contract with the B.C. Liberal Party to search for new deputies back in 2001. The appointments that followed from that search saw Andrew Wilkinson, former B.C. Liberal Party President – yet another B.C. Liberal friend and insider – promoted to the post of Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Relations. Can we really trust this firm to make non-partisan recommendations for appointments to hundreds of boards and agencies?”

In a letter to Merit Commissioner Joy Illington, Ralston requested a two-pronged investigation of the contract: a review of the terms of the competition in which the contract was awarded to Ray & Berndtson, and an investigation as to whether the contract jeopardizes the merit-based appointment process maintained by the BDRO.