The Lobbying Activities of Neelam J. Makhija on Behalf of Infowave Software, Inc.

Background

Neelam J. Makhija is the President of NJM Initiatives Inc. (NJM), a corporation registered in the province of Ontario. The company office is located in Oakville, Ontario. Company brochures state that NJM provides a unique service to Canadian high technology companies. Of particular relevance to this investigation is NJM's advertised expertise in "Federal Technology and Financial Investment Qualification and Mr. Makhija's role in "Proposal Advocacy and Company Representation".

Infowave Software, Inc. (Infowave) is a corporation based in Burnaby, British Columbia. The company provides software applications that integrate business operations required by mobile workers.

Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) is a special operating agency of Industry Canada established in 1996. Its mandate is to provide conditionally repayable contributions to companies in Canada in order to bring research and development in technology to the marketplace.

TPC works with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to deliver the TPC program to Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises. TPC also works with the Communications Research Centre (CRC), an agency of Industry Canada whose mission is to be the federal government's centre of excellence for communications research and development.

Initiation of the Investigation

In October 2005, I determined that based on information provided by officials at Industry Canada, I had reasonable grounds to believe that Neelam Makhija had breached the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct with respect to his activities on behalf of four high technology companies in British Columbia. Pursuant to subsection 10.4(1) of the Lobbyists Registration Act, I directed that investigations be conducted.

This report deals with Mr. Makhija's activities on behalf of Infowave.

Methodology

The Investigations Directorate of the ORL conducted an investigation with respect to Mr. Makhija's activities on behalf of Infowave. The investigative process included an examination of the following:

• correspondence between federal government employees and either Mr. Makhija or Infowave
• correspondence between Mr. Makhija and either Infowave or his other clients
• agreements between Infowave and the federal government
• contracts and agreements between Infowave and either NJM or Mr. Makhija
• payments by Infowave to NJM or Mr. Makhija
• Infowave's annual and quarterly reports
• government information related to the TPC program
• the Registry of Lobbyists
• publicly-available information from the Internet

Upon the completion of its report, the Investigations Directorate submitted a report to me. The facts contained in the report are based on information found in Infowave's annual and quarterly reports for 2003 and 2004; the Registry of Lobbyists; and documents held by Industry Canada. The documents are from the period of October 2000 to April 2004 and include internal notes, as well as emails and letters written among the following: Neelam Makhija; employees of TPC; and senior officers of Infowave and the President of TIR SystemsLtd. (another Vancouver-based company that was Mr. Makhija's client). I sent a copy of the report to Mr. Makhija and provided him with an opportunity to state his views.

That work formed the basis for this Investigation Report.