International Trade Minister Mary Ng has pledged through signing a “conflict of interest screen” to never again award a sole-sourced contract to her longtime-friend Amanda Alvaro, the president of a Toronto-based public relations agency.
In December 2022, federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said Ng violated the Conflict of Interest Act when her office awarded sole-sourced contracts to Alvaro’s agency, Pomp & Circumstance.
“The Ethics Commissioner and I have agreed a conflict of interest screen is an appropriate measure to prevent any opportunity while exercising my official powers, duties and functions to further the private interests of my friend Ms. Amanda Alvaro, president of Pomp & Circumstances, or by giving preferential treatment to Pomp & Circumstances that may have future dealings with the government of Canada,” Ng wrote in a filing with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Ethics, according to Blacklock’s Reporter….