NSBI showing receipts for Ships Start Here
Posted Mar 1, 2012 07:03:48 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The province is trying to deflect some controversy over the much-debated “Ships Start Here” campaign with a show-and-tell of receipts.
The opposition Liberals have accused the government of breaking its own procurement policy by awarding an untendered contract for the promotional campaign to a public relations firm without first getting approval from the Treasury Board.
But the president of Nova Scotia Business Inc., the agency that paid more than $300,000 to MT&L Communications, says all the money can be accounted for and says no rules were broken.
Stephen Lund says the contract was untendered, and awarded without Treasury Board approval, but says the province had to act fast.
“If we went through the process, we could have picked a number of firms,” he said. “We decided that we didn’t have that luxury of time, and we were comfortable with the firm. We had used them before.”
The firm billed the province $240,000 in professional fees.
“We contracted them to help out with this campaign to create some awareness and excitement across the province and international,” he said. “They provided strategic advice, set up a platform, they reached out, sent out hundreds of thousands of emails.”
Lund acknowledges NSBI vice president Lisa Bugden was a former MT&L employee but says her connection is not the reason the firm was chosen for the work.
“I’d be surprised if there weren’t other connections with that firm,” he said. “This is a small town. At the end of the day, the buck stops with me. I’m very comfortable. We do things the right way and we do it very professionally. I’m lucky to have very good, professional people working for me.”
He says the firm’s campaign reached hundreds of thousands of people internationally, making it a success.
“Don’t lose sight of the fact that this was a fantastic opportunity for our province,” he adds. “If I had a chance to do this again for the next $25 billion contract, absolutely.”
The province spent more than $620,000 on the advertisement campaign to promote Halifax’s Irving Shipyard which won the $25 billion federal shipbuilding contract last October.
