ArriveCan contractor accused of lying to MPs in committee testimony

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OTTAWA – The embattled head of ArriveCan contractor Dalian told MPs he was never in conflict of interest while working at the National Defence Department, despite his signature appearing on a Dalian contract with government two months after he became a public servant.

David Yeo, the head of IT consulting firm Dalian, raised the hackles of MPs of all parties on the House public accounts committee Tuesday during a two-hour testimony marked by contradictions and confrontation.

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Yeo began by telling the committee that he joined the federal public service in September 2023, “long after” his company Dalian’s work with ArriveCan was completed.

He said he then entered into a “Confidentiality, Non-Disclosure and No Access Agreement” deal with Dalian within 60 days after beginning work as a Department of National Defence (DND) employee.

He took swipes at the auditor general’s scathing report on ArriveCan, saying it was both a “good report” that contained “vagaries”, “discrepancies” and “incorrect information”. For example, he said that Dalian had received $4.9 million in contracts for ArriveCan, not $7.9 million as reported by the auditor general.

He also accused the media of reporting “fake news” when they reported that his LinkedIn account showed him as working for DND for decades, including during the time he headed Dalian and the company was contracted by the government to work on ArriveCan. He accused the press of not contacting him for comment.

Conservatives fired back that Yeo told committee members during a hearing on October 31 that he was still an executive on Dalian’s board of directors at the time.

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“You have said that… the media have claimed that you were on (Dalian’s) board of directors and a government employee at the same time without asking you. Well, maybe they didn’t need to ask you because they foolishly assumed that what you told Parliament on October the 31st was true,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said.

Yeo also said that he had resigned from the public service shortly after reports of his potential unreported “double dipping” as a public servant and government contractor emerged, but that DND had since sent statements to the media that they had found no conflict of interest in his case.

DND did not immediately respond to a request to confirm that information. National Post was not able to find the statement. Postmedia reported earlier this month that DND had confirmed that public servants are allowed to have side contracts with the government, provided proper rules are followed, however it had also suspended Yeo pending an investigation.

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Yeo’s story seemed to further unravel when MPs began grilling him on a contract between the government and Dalian signed in November 2023, two months after he said he stepped away from Dalian.

Yeo eventually confirmed that his signature appeared on the Dalian contract, which he did not disclose to the Defence Department as a conflict of interest. He claimed it was because he had authorized his partner to reproduce his signature on his behalf in his absence from the company.

“So Dalian signed a contract with DND after you became an employee again in the fall of (2023). This is obviously a conflict of interest. Why did you not feel you were in a conflict?” asked Liberal MP Jean Yip.

Yeo eventually told the committee that he did not inform DND that he signed the November 2023 contract between Dalian and the government because “I did not actually sign it. I had a signature available for the staff at the office for them to use.”

By the end of the committee meeting, MPs from various parties were questioning Yeo’s credibility and truthfulness.

“Your story has a number of holes in it,” Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan said.

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“Mr.  Yeo, it has been extremely disappointed to see this level of misrepresentation,” said NDP MP Blake Desjarlais.

MPs also spent some time exploring Yeo’s political past. He confirmed he had run for the People’s Party of Canada in 2021 but stated he had otherwise always been a member of the “Progressive Conservatives,” presumably meaning the Conservative Party of Canada. CPC committee members questioned that assertion and asked Yeo to table proof to the committee of his membership.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett also wondered why the committee should believe any of his critiques of the auditor general’s report.

“You read it and determined … that the whole army of auditors was wrong, and this one-man army was right. But you’ve offered a series of assertions in your committee appearances that aren’t true and those have been highlighted by members of other parties and my colleagues,” Barrett told Yeo.

National Post

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