The scandal surrounding the ArriveCAN app, which monopolized political attention in Ottawa last month, is far from over. The financial fiasco is the subject of yet another investigation, this time by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, who will investigate retaliatory measures allegedly taken against two civil servants suspended in the process. Here’s what you need to know about the scandal and its latest developments.
Why is there a scandal?
On February 12, Canada’s Auditor General, Karen Hogan, released a shocking report revealing that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) had conducted its own procurement process to order ArriveCAN, a mobile application that aimed to facilitate entry of travelers into the country during the pandemic.
The auditor found that the government’s use of exclusive external subcontractors for its development had increased the costs of the application and that these costs were not properly tracked.
“This is probably some of the worst financial record keeping I’ve ever seen,” she said then.
The base app was paid $80,000 in April 2020. At least $59.5 million was added to the bill for 177 updates, M estimatedme Hogan.
Furthermore, the CBSA did not keep documentation on the awarding of a contract without a call for tenders to GC Strategies, the main company to have benefited from the irregularities surrounding the ArriveCAN application.
How many investigations are underway?
Nearly ten investigations into the ArriveCAN file are underway or have been carried out, according to a count by the Duty.
Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Harriet Solloway is the latest to launch her investigation. She will examine “several allegations of wrongdoing”, confirmed her police station Duty Tuesday.
“We can confirm that complaints […] were filed with the Office by Mr. Cameron MacDonald and Mr. Antonio Utano concerning alleged retaliatory measures taken against the latter after their testimonies,” he said by email.
Last November, these two former CBSA officials said that the agency’s former vice-president Minh Doan lied to the parliamentary committee about not knowing who within the organization chose GC Strategies to work on the application.
They also claimed that Mr. Doan deleted “tens of thousands” of emails. The latter denied these allegations.
Last month, the Information Commissioner of Canada, Caroline Maynard, also announced the opening of an investigation, this one into the destruction of documents covered by access to information requests in the affair ArriveCAN.
Investigations by the CBSA, the parliamentary government operations committee and the public accounts committee have also been launched. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are also investigating the case.
A month before the Auditor General’s report was tabled, the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman revealed that in approximately 76% of contracts associated with ArriveCAN, “some or all of the resources proposed by the selected supplier were not performed any work under the contract.
How did the government defend itself?
Shortly after the release of the Auditor General’s report, the Liberals refused to take responsibility for the costly development of ArriveCAN, instead pointing the finger at the CBSA.
The Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, affirmed having “full confidence” in the president of the agency and in the ability of the organization to take “all appropriate corrective measures so that public funds are spent diligently “.
For her part, the President of the Treasury Board, Anita Anand, who was Minister of Supply at the time, said she did not have a contract in front of her.
Asked about this last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that contractual rules had not been respected during the development of the application. He said there would be consequences for officials who failed to follow the rules.
What happens to the companies that worked on the application?
Ottawa changed the status of GC Strategies, which the Auditor General said received more than $19 million for the project, to prevent the company from bidding on government contracts with security requirements and working on these.
The government also banned two other companies that contributed to the project, Dalian Enterprises and Coradix Technology Consulting, from participating in procurement opportunities.
Two senior federal officials were also suspended without pay for their involvement in the explosion of costs for the ArriveCAN application.
What do the suspended officials say?
Last month, the two suspended senior officials proclaimed their innocence before a parliamentary committee.
Cameron MacDonald, now assistant deputy minister at Health Canada, and Antonio Utano, director general of informatics at the Canada Revenue Agency, worked together on the development of the ArriveCAN application at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They refuted the allegations made against them and blamed their superiors at the CBSA, maintaining that they “misled” Parliament to cover up their negligence in the matter.
“We were not accountable and did not have sufficient authority to sign contracts or approve budgets. We are also not responsible for choosing GC Strategies to work on ArriveCAN,” argued Mr. Utano.
What are the next steps ?
The two GC Strategies partners — Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony — are scheduled to appear Wednesday and Thursday before the government operations committee, which is examining cost overruns in the ArriveCAN file. Both meetings are expected to last three hours.
They have both previously appeared before the operations committee, in October 2022, to talk about the application.
Furthermore, a motion from the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, who asks “the Prime Minister to table in the House, no later than Monday, March 18, 2024, a report giving details of all direct and obligations assumed to date in relation to the ArriveCAN application”, was adopted.
The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois supported the motion.
With information from The Canadian Press