[LabComm] NDP demands to know why BC Liberals dismissed senior bureaucrat who blocked Doug Walls' demands for money

[BC NDP NEWSWIRE]

VICTORIA – The New Democrat Opposition is demanding to know why the BC Liberal government dismissed a senior bureaucrat who was blocking Doug Walls’ demands for more taxpayer money.

The audit released yesterday into the Doug Walls scandal detailed the efforts of Theresa Kerin, an Assistant Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Children and Family Development, to block Doug Walls’ efforts to secure hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for his company CareNet.  

According to e-mails released in the audit, Ms. Kerin held to the previous government’s position that it would provide $50,000 a year for CareNet to connect its non-profit clients to the Internet.  Mr. Walls was demanding $20,000 a month.  In late July 2001, after making a final stand, Ms. Kerin was dismissed and replaced by a new ADM, who granted Doug Walls his request.

“Before the Liberals took office, Mr. Walls was held on a short leash by government.  After the election, he was allowed to spend freely on a taxpayer funded credit card handed to him by the new government,” said NDP MLA Jenny Kwan  “The Audit does not explain why Ms. Kerin was fired or who ordered her dismissal.”

A senior BC Liberal insider and relative of the premier, Doug Walls eventually ran up a $2.3 million tab at taxpayer expense with no scrutiny from the Liberal government.   He was granted unprecedented access to the premier’s office, and given control over a $600 million budget and untendered contracts to administer programs for the developmentally disabled.

The audit shows clearly that Mr. Walls, a high-level Liberal Party official, lobbied the Premier’s office on more than one occasion to advance his interests,” said Kwan. “Was it the Premier’s office that fired Ms. Kerin, and did they do so at the request of Mr. Walls?”

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