RCMP claims ADM tried to prevent auditing of funds for addictions center.

OTTAWA -- A top bureaucrat with Health Canada tried to block an audit clause in a funding agreement with a Virginia Fontane Addictions Centre in Manitoba worth $16 million just three days after Health Canada completed an audit into money squandering by the centre, says an RCMP affidavit.

The official, Paul Cochrane, a former assistant deputy minister has been charged with eight counts of forgery and for accepting a $50,000 bribe, three sport utility vehicles worth $98,000 and ice-level Ottawa Senator seats worth $20,000.

The affidavits obtained by the Ottawa Citizen from public court files note that in 1997 Cochrane, then Health Canada's Assistant Deputy Minister, "insisted" the government relinquish its right to an audit of monies spent by the Sagkeeng Solvent Treatment Centre located near Pine Falls First Nation despite opposing advice from Health Canada lawyers, who wanted an audit clause inserted in the funding agreement to "verify how funding was being spent."

The projected agreement would have given the centre greater freedom to spend federal money even though it was under scrutiny for financial mismanagement. In the end Health Canada officials inserted a handwritten audit clause on route to the centre.

Cochrane's son, Jeremy, has also been charged with fraud over $5000 after RCMP officers uncovered an alleged scheme whereby he is accused of drawing a salary from a North Bay native organization even though he never actually worked there. As well, Cochrane's former assistant, Aline Dirks, has been charged for her role in transferring public funds to the North Bay centre for Jeremy Cochrane's non-existent job.