Former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano says he is being scapegoated and denied due process in the $100-million federal sponsorship scandal.

"Before it was the media and opposition; now it's the government," he told Montreal's CFCF-TV on Friday.

"Everybody has concluded that Gagliano, Jean Pelletier (Chretien's former chief of staff) and Jean Chretien -- those are the  bad guys."

He hinted he may sue, saying, "I ask my lawyers to look into the damage they caused to me."

Gagliano was the minister in charge of the department from 1997 until January 2002, when then-prime minister Jean Chretien made him ambassador to Denmark as controversy started to sprout about the department's advertising spending.

On Feb. 10, 2004 -- the day Auditor General Sheila Fraser released her damning report on the scandal -- he became the first casualty, when the government announced he would be recalled and fired from his diplomatic job.

Gagliano called this an abuse of process.

When he took over the ministry in 1997, Gagliano said the program was working well.

It was intended to raise the federal government's profile in Quebec following the near loss by federalists in the 1995 sovereignty referendum by sponsoring things like sports and cultural shows.

He claimed to be the first to order an internal audit into the program.

That audit found serious management problems but no indication of wrongdoing or fraud, he said.

Asked if he was saying he wasn't aware of some of the specific contracts, Gagliano said: "I was not managing day-to-day program. The bureaucrats do this.

"The minister states the policy and I had no indication until 2000 that a problem was there.

"And that is why I say that I discharged my administrative responsibility."

In testimony this past week before a Parliamentary committee examining the sponsorship scandal, former public works deputy minister Ranald Quail said the program was run like no other.

The bureaucrat in charge -- Chuck Guite -- had very direct relations with the political bosses. That was different than almost any other program in the department, he said.

Gagliano said was "not aware of the scandal as such" and never discussed the program with Chretien or Martin.

Of Guite, he said: "It seems he was doing everything. One person had all the power."

The program came after the country almost broke up, he said. "We had to do something about it, but we never asked people to break the law."

In her report, Fraser found false invoices, double billing and evidence of possible fraud.

The RCMP is doing some investigating and one Montreal executive has already been charged.

Despite that, "the language of the Auditor General was over-inflated, and you see the language of Paul Martin was over-inflated," he said.

Martin is trying to get re-elected and wants to distance himself from the previous government, he said. "But he can't; he was part of it."

Once all the information is out, Gagliano said his name will be cleared.

He is scheduled to appear before Parliament's public works committee on March 18.

Based on a report by CTV's Rosemary Thompson