OTTAWA — Jean Chretien's former right-hand man says he did nothing wrong by offering personal advice on which projects should receive funding under the federal sponsorship program.

Jean Pelletier, who served as chief of staff to Chretien for most of his decade as prime minister, told a public inquiry Monday he was doing his job when he provided political input to the public servants running the program. "I have no apologies," said Pelletier.

"I think I only did my duty... I have a clear conscience about all of this."

Pelletier acknowledged -- as he has done before -- that he would meet on occasion with Chuck Guite, the bureaucrat at the Public Works Department who was in charge of the sponsorship program in its early years.

Documents at the inquiry indicate there were five such meetings, for example, in 1997. Some of them were also attended by Jean Carle, another senior aide to Chretien.

Pelletier said it was natural that Guite would want political advice, since a key aim of the program was to raise the federal profile in Quebec and fight separatism.

"So he would consult the Prime Minister's Office frequently to get our opinion. It was absolutely logical, in our view."

Pelletier said he offered general advice -- for example, whether a given event would likely attract a large audience, and whether it would take place in a region of Quebec where the federal image needed a boost.

For some "major files" Guite may have referred to the need to hire an advertising agency with sufficient resources to manage the project, said Pelletier.

"Perhaps he mentioned that, and perhaps I accepted it."

Pelletier insisted, however, that neither he nor anybody else at the PMO imposed their own views on which agencies should handle specific projects.

"We never chose any agencies at the Prime Minister's Office," said Pelletier. "We had nothing to do with that."

Nor did the PMO get involved in deciding the commissions to be paid to the agencies, he said - although he acknowledged that, as someone familiar with the communications field, he was aware of the going rates in the industry.

Previous evidence has indicated that agencies doing hands-on work on a project would generally charge 12 per cent commissions.

The so-called agency of record, which had more general managerial responsibility, would usually charge three per cent.

Ottawa spent $250 million under the program to sponsor sports and cultural events, films, TV series, books, magazines and a host of other projects.

The ostensible aim was to combat separatism, but an estimated $100 million went to Liberal-friendly ad agencies, public relations firms and other middlemen who often did not deliver quality work.

Chretien is to follow Pelletier as the next witness at the inquiry, perhaps as early as Tuesday.

After that Gomery is to hear from Chretien's successor as prime minister, Paul Martin, who held the finance portfolio for most of the sponsorship years.