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7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,D ecem ber 19,2019 insidehalton.com 220 Randall Street, Downtown Oakville 905-842-2100 www.watsoninvestments.comwww.watsoninvestments.com Wishing everyone Health &Happiness this Holiday Season. Merry Christmas & New Year. .watsoninvestments.com 2983 Westoak Trails Blvd 905-825-DOCS M-F: 830am to 8pm Sat: 9am to 2pm www.healthsensemedical.ca Visit the HealthSenseWalk-In Clinic when you need a doctor. Convenient hours. Walk-In Clinic At one point, Halton Region is- sued payments of nearly $500,000 in total of Sirron invoices to the Receiver General of Canada be- cause the Canada Revenue Agen- cy had obtained a garnishment or- der against the company. The report found evidence Nor- ris provided kickbacks to Ohashi that allegedly included cash pay- ments of $41,000 and $11,200 (U.S.), as well as travel, electronics and tickets. According to a text message ex- change in April 2011, Norris alleg- edly hid part of one kickback pay- ment in a washroom stall. "When u get here use washroom - $$ are under toilette paper roll on top of garbage can," Norris texted Ohashi. On other occasions, according to the report, payments were alleg- edly mailed directly to Ohashi's home. Included in the report are sev- eral instances where Ohashi alleg- edly manipulated the tendering process to the advantage of a hand- picked company or helped alter the terms of a contract to provide benefits to a company. For example, the report sug- gests Ohashi succeeded in having certain minimum requirements added to the tender for the provi- sion of ozone equipment for the Burloak Water Purification Plant, which disqualified competitors to the company he wanted to obtain the contract. The report shows the main company that ended up providing the ozone equipment and a second smaller company hired to service the equipment were both re- presented by the same person, a New Jersey man whose listed business address appears to be his home. The report also alleges there were instances when the New Jersey man provided kick- backs to Ohashi. Ironically, the report points out, there was no need for a service contract for the ozone equipment because the company that sup- plied it was supposed to maintain and repair its own equipment. In text messages from 2012 with a Halton Region co-op student, Ohashi told her how the New Jer- sey company rep would fly to Buf- falo and stay in Niagara Falls.falo and stay in Niagara Falls.f "I meet him Friday nights ... then ... And then golf Saturday mornings before he flies back," Ohashi texted. "Ah man, u got me confessing too many secrets... you have (too) much blackmail materi- al now." When the forensic accountants looked into details of the service invoices from the New Jersey companies for the ozone equip- ment, they found evidence of sus- picious activity. Each water plant is required to maintain an operations log that notes the presence of external sup- pliers and contractors. On 24 occasions between 2005 and 2010, Halton was billed a total of $248,000 (U.S.) for service calls but there is no record that anyone from the New Jersey companiesfrom the New Jersey companiesf actually visited the water purifica- tion plants based on the logs. Between 2005 and 2009, one of the New Jersey companies billed Halton $120,000 (U.S.) for "remote monitoring" of the ozone systems, the report states, but years later the region learned from another high-ranking manager that the ozone systems weren't even set up to be monitored remotely. The report also found 41 invoic- es totalling $91,000 (U.S.) submit- ted to the region by one of the New Jersey companies for travel ex- penses, but not one of the travel claims had any supporting docu- mentation or receipts. In at least one case, Ohashi is al- leged to have engaged in what's known as "hard spec'ing" equip- ment for certain projects. Hard spec'ing refers to the practice of re- quiring general contractors on a project to use very specific pieces of equipment, which can then ben- efit the suppliers of that equip- ment. In another case, a service con- tract was to be advertised for ten- der but Ohashi only contacted one company to bid on it. Then he sent an email to a Halton Region col- league alerting him that only one company ended up submitting a bid. The investigative report found "numerous instances" where Ohashi would blind copy certain suppliers and contractors on email messages he was exchang- ing with other region employees. This would give the suppliers and contractors knowledge of poten- tially sensitive information about projects and tenders. In the wake of the Ohashi case, Halton Region states it has "con- ducted an extensive review of its processes and procedures, updat- ed its employee and vendor codes of conduct and implemented man- datory training to identify and re- port fraudulent behaviour." Despite allegations of providing kickbacks to Ohashi, two compa- nies named in the report are still among the approved companies on Halton Region's most recently published list of pre-qualified sup- pliers and contractors. The Spectator has elected to not name the companies because they have not been charged with any criminal offences. One of the companies still ap- proved for business with Halton is alleged to have supplied Ohashi with cash, travel, event tickets and "adult entertainment," as well as paying travel costs for Ohashi's son. When contacted by The Specta- tor, the company representative denied that his company engaged in any kickback scheme. He said there was a cash pay- ment but it was a hockey sponsor- ship for a team associated with Ohashi's children. Any alleged travel payments were also hockey- related, the company rep added. Halton states it has reviewed its list of vendors "and has taken ap- propriate action and cannot com- ment any further due to ongoing legal proceedings." LOCAL Continued from page 6