Lack of transparency in P.E.I. spending raises 'issues of trust and confidence,' expert says

The P.E.I. government is refusing to disclose basic information about some contracts the province awarded without going to tender, including what companies the province signed the contracts with.

This, as the province's auditor general and others call for increased transparency in how the P.E.I. government handles procurement — that is, the process of spending taxpayer dollars on goods and services.

"When the government doesn't want to be transparent, it tends to start raising issues of trust and confidence: what are they trying to hide?" said Lise Patry, a public procurement lawyer and instructor in the procurement program offered through Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.

"Unfortunately that's the byproduct of being non-transparent, especially with information that typically governments across Canada will share quite willingly."

CBC News filed access to information requests with every government department for basic information on all untendered contracts worth $10,000 or more from the first term of the Dennis King government.

Initially only the Department of Social Development and Seniors provided records. The premier's office said it had no responsive records.

Every other department responded with bills to retrieve the information which altogether totalled more than $7,000. 

CBC News pared down its request, seeking untendered contracts for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023 and eventually received information from nine of 11 government departments.

Of the 386 contracts disclosed to CBC News, the names of the companies were withheld from 78 of them, or one in five. In some of those, the province also refused to say what the contract was for.

In all those cases the province cited a section of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which states information can be withheld if its release "could reasonably be expected" to compromise the security of computer systems.

Patry said she was "shocked" and that it was "highly, highly unusual" for any government to withhold the names of companies with which it did business.

She said transparency in government spending is meant to reassure taxpayers that rules are being followed, and without it, "what typically tends to happen is those heading governments tend to start favouring certain vendors. 

"Sometimes it's people that have supported politicians, and all of a sudden what you find is an erosion of value, or paying too much for the services and goods. You're not getting the best value for money. That's not good for the taxpayer."

Even if Islanders had access to government contract information, in many cases it would be impossible for them to see whether rules were being followed because some of those rules are not available for the public to see.