Robert Ghiz’s “Sworn” Affidavit on his Decision to Destroy E-Gaming Documents

On December 3, 2018, the Defendants in the CMT lawsuit filed their affidavits for  their Motion to have the CMT lawsuit dismissed

Former Premier of PEI, Robert Ghiz, is one of the Defendants.

People tell me I tend to get too convoluted in my writing and try to cover too much ground, so I’ll try to keep this post simple by focussing on just one paragraph of his affidavit.

When you read it, keep in mind that Ghiz swore – probably with his hand on a bible – that what he wrote in his affidavit was “true”.

This paragraph is about his decision to order Information Technology Shared Services (ITSS) to destroy all of his Chief-of-Staff ‘s (Chris LeClair’s) Network files and Emails:

Wow!  Wow!  and  Wow!  He actually said:  “I had no knowledge of the procedures followed by ITSS after a Form was received”

How is that even possible, given that the form Ghiz completed and signed makes it abundantly clear what those procedures are?  In fact, the sole reason why the form exists is to provide official authorization to ITSS to either: (1) save the files and set up a “proxy” so they would be accessible by other government employees, or (2) have the files DESTROYED.   And Ghiz checked the boxes that instructed ITSS to DESTROY ALL FILES. See for yourself:

To save you squinting to read fuzzy text, the relevant questions in the second block are:

Do you want the employee user network files deleted?  Ghiz checked  “yes” 

Do you want the employee’s Groupwise account deleted? Ghiz checked “yes” 

So when CMT’s lawyer asks Robert Ghiz during cross-examination in January, 2019, why he swore he had “no knowledge of the procedures that ITSS follows after a form is received,”  what’s Ghiz going to say?   That he didn’t know if they used explosives, or hammers, or just hit the “delete” button on a computer keyboard to destroy them?  Who friggin cares?  He knows that those “procedures”  – whatever they were –  completely obliterated the records he had a duty to protect!

Ghiz absolutely knew that what he was instructing ITSS to do with his Chief-of-staff’s files was illegal; and that ITSS wouldn’t have destroyed those government documents if Ghiz had told them up-front that he hadn’t actually copied the files for safe storage in the archives, as he was legally required to do.  Or at least that’s what the head of ITSS, Scott Cudmore, told members of the Public Accounts Committee on February 1, 2017:

“….the assumption on the part of IT Shared Services at the time was that records [ordered destroyed by Ghiz] had been retained according to records management policy” [p 106].

Is it possible that Premier Ghiz didn’t realize LeClair’s records had to be retained as per Records Management Policy?  Not a chance. You can read my 62 page report on that question if you want to know exactly why and how he knew.

But consider this: another form used in the process of removing employee files after they leave government –  the LAN Removal Form – included an explicit and clear reminder for the supervisor providing instructions to ITSS [Ghiz was Chris LeClair’s Supervisor] that there was a legal responsibility to ensure emails are not destroyed without first being copied and/or otherwise retained, again, as per the legal requirements spelled out in the Archives and Records Act:

“Note: It is the responsibility of the Supervisor to Forward, Print, or Archive GroupWise email before an account is deleted.”

Does Ghiz take us all for fools by swearing he knew nothing about ITSS procedures?

Let’s be clear: Ghiz wanted Chris LeClair’s files gone for a reason,  lots of reasons, and it wasn’t just because Chris LeClair had engaged in “insider trading” with the e-gaming file – something LeClair has never had to answer for.

No, there’s plenty more reasons why those particular e-gaming records were problematic that will be revealed in due course – as well as why Ghiz (after having received an advance copy of CMT’s investigative report on the fraudulent Security’s Investigation by the Ghiz government) announced his resignation as Premier the day before CMT’s report was made public.  That’s a story I’m looking forward to telling after my leadership campaign is over and I have more time.

It was the ONLY investigation ever undertaken by the PEI Securities Commission – file 001 – and it was instigated based on the lie that the president of Capital Markets Technologies had stolen money from a woman with cancer…..but here I go again, down another road, on another ramble…..so I’ll force myself to stop typing and end by saying that I’d sure love to be a fly on the wall when Ghiz tries to explain what he meant by confessing his ignorance about “ITSS procedures” at cross examination in January!