TheStar.com - Grand Prix ticket costs `hidden' in paperwork: "Grand Prix ticket costs `hidden' in paperwork
MIRO CERNETIG
QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF
Montreal - Most Canadians would be hard-pressed to pay $2,800 for a three-day ticket into the Montreal Grand Prix's 'Paddock Club,' where the champagne flows and jet-setters and celebrities watch Formula One racing in luxury.Four tickets to the Formula One in Monza, Italy - price tag $12,000 - would probably be an even bigger stretch.
But it was no problem for Jean Brault, the racing buff and president of Groupaction, the ad firm at the centre of the federal sponsorship scandal. He simply arranged to have the cost buried inside two sponsorship contracts - and had taxpayers foot the bill.
'Is there no integrity in invoicing?' demanded Justice John Gomery, when presented with a series of invoices at the sponsorship inquiry yesterday.
The inquiry was also presented with evidence Chuck Guite the civil servant who once ran Ottawa's $250-million sponsorship program, was offered those tickets to Italy. It was unclear, however, if he used them.
Documents presented to the Gomery commission show about $264,000 worth of Montreal Formula One tickets - enough for about 600 Groupaction guests who have yet to be named - were hidden in a sponsorship contract arranged between the ad firm and Grand Prix F1 du Canada Inc., which runs the Montreal race.
The original sponsorship - costing Ottawa about $1 million to fly the flag at the 1998 Montreal Grand Prix race - was boosted by the amount of the tickets, documents show.
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