The provided timeline is indeed the most sobering aspect of this horrible incident. If I were a betting person, (I'm not) my money would be on 'didn't investigate properly' as the Harper government had many incidents of rank incompetence throughout its tenure. The important point is that they mean the same thing; they didn't care enough to do a competent job, as long as the 'proper forms' were followed, which in this case was appointing 'one of our guys'.