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This article was published 10/12/2014 (2111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The RCMP are investigating allegations of doctored invoices and a payment to a member of city council as part of their review of three external audits of major City of Winnipeg construction projects and real-estate deals.

In August, Manitoba Justice asked the Mounties to review audits of Winnipeg’s $210-million police headquarters project, the $18.6-million fire-paramedic station construction program and city real-estate transactions worth more than $500,000.

Manitoba Justice also said in an Aug. 15 statement that it referred "additional material received related to these matters" to the RCMP.

Those materials included a "brown envelope" letter sent on July 10 to the office of then-justice minister Andrew Swan, alleging the inflation of invoices related to the construction of the Winnipeg police headquarters and a payment to an unspecified member of council, the Free Press has learned from interviews with multiple sources.

The RCMP has followed through on this information and has started conducting interviews, sources confirmed.

"They are taking this very, very seriously," said one source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The RCMP declined to comment on the nature of the allegations contained in the letter, the scope of the resulting investigation or whether any charges are pending.

"All we can say at this point is that documents have been forwarded to us and they are under review," RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel said in a statement earlier this week. "We will not be discussing anything further at this time."

The Winnipeg Police Service is not involved in the investigation but would co-operate upon the request of the RCMP, Chief Devon Clunis said.

"I have no specific details on that piece. I don’t know at one point if they’ve spoken to our members," Clunis told reporters last week, after being asked whether he was aware of interviews involving his staff.

The trio of city audits did not make any mention of improper invoicing or a payment to a member of council. An external legal review of the audits concluded they did not present any evidence of criminal activity.

Instead, the audits painted a picture of severe mismanagement of major construction projects at the highest levels of Winnipeg’s public service, numerous breaches of city policy, favouritism in the award of contracts and a failure to disclose crucial information to city councillors.

The police-headquarters audit, conducted by the consulting firm KPMG, concluded the city awarded what was initially a $137.1-million construction contract to a firm that did not submit a bid for the job.

The police-HQ audit also found council was not told the "guaranteed maximum price" for the construction work was based on a design that was only 30 per cent complete and subject to change.

The city’s real-estate management audit, conducted by consulting firm EY, concluded no appraisal was made of the former Canada Post building before the city bought it for $29.25 million, no appraisals or inspections were conducted of the two properties involved in the Parker land swap – which was described as a "rush job" – and that an expression-of-interest document soliciting offers to redevelop the Canad Inns Stadium site at Polo Park was given to one proponent before the document was made available to other bidders.

The real-estate audit also found city staff did not disclose a $10-million valuation of surface-parking lot Parcel Four when it recommended it for sale at $5.9 million and also did not disclose a $43.6-million valuation of the Winnipeg Square Parkade before councillors approved its sale at $24 million.

The review of the fire-paramedic stations construction project, also conducted by EY, concluded what was originally supposed to be a single construction contract was split into four contracts that were awarded on a "non-competitive basis" — as well as in a manner that circumvented council approval.

The fire-paramedic station review also declared Winnipeg’s former fire-paramedic chief did not possess the expertise to arrange a since-abandoned swap of three city properties for the site of the new Station No. 12, which was built on land the city does not own.

No current or former city official has been censured or disciplined as a result of the issues documented in the trio of audits.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca