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MONTREAL - Quebec's subsidized public daycare system is to be probed by the province's anti-corruption squad after a devastating auditor's report this week examining the administration of the network.
Specifically the Unite permanente anticorruption (UPAC) will shine a light on the awarding of 18,000 subsidized daycare places starting in 2008, a process Quebec Auditor General Renaud Lachance criticized this week as prone to ''subjectivity'' and the Parti Quebecois Opposition has long claimed demonstrated favouritism toward Liberal party donors.
''The integrity of the public system is at the heart (of) my mandate in the fight against corruption,'' UPAC commissioner Robert Lafreniere said in a statement announcing the investigation Thursday.
''The findings of the auditor general are disturbing enough for me to ask my team to amass and analyze the pertinent information to determine whether there is grounds for an investigation.''
Lafreniere reserved the right to keep further steps in the review process confidential.
Quebec Treasury Board President Michelle Courchesne, who was formerly the family minister overseeing the awarding of subsidized daycare places, resisted Opposition calls to resign this week.
-reprinted from the Montreal Gazette