An Ottawa-based technology company suspended from working for the federal government after becoming embroiled in the ArriveCan app contract spending controversy is unloading a second office condominium it owns near Parliament Hill.
Global News has learned that the second property put up for sale by Coradix Technology Consulting Ltd. at 222 Somerset St. West in Ottawa’s downtown is worth almost $1 million.
It joins a larger $2.2-million office condo which Coradix is also selling in the same building amid multiple ongoing criminal and parliamentary investigations into the ArriveCan affair.
The second smaller office suite covers about half a floor in the commercial office building. It includes three parking spaces and a $14,109 annual tax bill.
The suite features office space with plenty of natural light, a kitchenette and open-plan workstations for employees, several private offices and a meeting room equipped with a screen. The larger office condo suite is sprawling and features six parking spaces and carries an annual tax bill that tops $39,000.
Dominic Dostie, a CBRE Ottawa senior vice-president and commercial real estate agent, is now selling both Suite #702 and Suite #500.
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Dostie declined to comment on the listings, which were put on the market five months ago just as the ArriveCan app spending controversy began intensifying inside Parliament, documents show.
Coradix acquired both suites of offices in late 2019.
It obtained a $2,847,000 mortgage loan from National Bank of Canada to pay for units in the Ottawa building in December, 2019, just prior to the start of the pandemic, after the parties signed a loan commitment letter back in August 2019, land title records show.
On March 6, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) said it froze all Coradix’s current work involving previously awarded but unfinished contracts.
PPSC said it stopped Coradix’s work under a “framework” that exists to “to prevent, detect and respond to situations of conflict of interest or potential wrongdoing, in order to safeguard the integrity, fairness, openness and transparency of the federal procurement system.”
“In addition, Coradix has been suspended from participating in new procurement opportunities, while also disqualifying the company from eligibility considerations for current and future PSPC methods of supply instruments,” the department said.
Neither Coradix nor its chief executive officer, Tony Carmanico, has returned telephone or email messages seeking additional information about the property sales. The company has not made any comment about its suspension or property sales on its website.
The RCMP is conducting a criminal investigation into federal contracts awarded surrounding the development of the Arrive Can app, including those awarded to subcontractors like Coradix, after several people and agencies complained. No charges have been laid by the police to date.
ArriveCan was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Led by Canada Border Services Agency, the effort aimed to help Canadians store information electronically about their vaccinations for travel and their addresses, in case they needed to be contacted amid an outbreak or exposure.
The app’s spending exploded into a mushroom cloud of at least $59.5 million worth of deals involving a lead company, GC Strategies, and a labyrinth of technology subcontractors that included Dalian Enterprises and Coradix, Auditor General of Canada Karen Hogan recently reported.
Things were so mismanaged, Hogan says, that even she couldn’t figure out the final tally.
“We didn’t find records to accurately show how much was spent on what, who did the work or how and why contracting decisions were made, and that paper trail should have existed,” Hogan told the Commons public accounts committee after her report was made public.
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