Ex-public servant linked to ArriveCan didn't disclose outside business until after suspension, official says

An IT contractor and former public servant who worked on the ArriveCan app didn't file a conflict of interest report until after he was suspended from the Department of National Defence (DND), a government official says.

David Yeo, founder and president of Dalian Enterprises, was hired by DND in September after spending years accepting millions in government contracts.

Public servants are allowed to have other jobs but must provide the government with a report on their separate business dealings for a conflict of interest assessment within 60 days of being hired.

Bill Matthews, DND deputy minister, said Yeo didn't file a conflict of interest report until March 3. He was suspended in February.

«This report was received after he had been suspended from his position with the department and 165 days after he began working [for DND],» he told MPs on the House public accounts committee on Thursday.

Yeo appeared before the same committee on Tuesday and told MPs that he took steps to address any conflict of interest concerns by agreeing to have no involvement with Dalian's DND projects and putting the company into a «blind trust.»

But Matthews said Thursday that the government has evidence he was still involved in Dalian after he was hired at DND.

«Even if [Yeo's assertions] were true, it would not remove the requirement to disclose his business activities to his employer,» he said.

«Whether his failure to report his other activities to his employer was due to his poor understanding of the rule, poor judgment or poor ethics, we have evidence that Mr. Yeo carried on in his role at Dalian after joining the public service.»

MPs questioned how the department could be unaware of Yeo's business dealings given that Dalian had been a contractor