It was perhaps legitimate to suspend certain rules to allow the federal government to act quickly during the pandemic, but not to award contracts without documentation to create ArriveCAN, says the Auditor General of Canada.
“At the start of the pandemic, the Treasury Board provided flexibility [aux ministères]. But this flexibility came with a reminder that it was necessary to properly document the decisions taken so that there was good accountability,” explained Karen Hogan before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa on Wednesday.
“From my point of view, an emergency is not a reason to set aside the rules. »
The independent agent of Parliament published a shocking report Monday that caused a stir in Ottawa. It demonstrates the lack of regard for the management of public funds shown by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in the project to create ArriveCAN.
This is a smartphone application intended to facilitate the entry of travelers into Canada. Its use was made mandatory upon its release in spring 2020, given the raging COVID-19 pandemic. The app has become an emblem of problems with border restrictions during this crisis.
No documentation
The CBSA conducted its own procurement process to order ArriveCAN. She kept no documentation about the award of a no-bid contract to GC Strategies, a company made up of two partners working from their home.
This company is suspected of being behind a “ghost company” scheme to extract public money by IT specialists heard in a parliamentary committee last year. It is also the one that made the most money with the development of ArriveCAN, i.e. $19.1 million. The firm also helped write government tenders for this project.
The interviews conducted by Mme Hogan tells him that some Agency officials also participated in dinners with government suppliers, a breach of their code of conduct currently under police investigation.
“It is the RCMP which is responsible for determining whether there are actions of a criminal nature, by the Auditor General,” the Auditor General further clarified. It would have been the responsibility of civil servants to alert their superiors after having simply been invited to dinner by a supplier, she specifies.
The Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, who is ultimately responsible for the actions of the CBSA, justified Monday that ArriveCAN “was developed in a global pandemic”, and that his government “had to act quickly for the safety of Canadians “.
His colleague at Public Services and Procurement, Jean-Yves Duclos, added Wednesday morning that “what the Auditor General found [dans son rapport] is unacceptable, despite all the difficult context” of the pandemic.
The elected officials shocked
The opposition in Ottawa has seized on the scandal since the start of the week. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre sees this as a cause of “corruption”, and asks the Auditor General of Canada to investigate all contracts that were awarded to the company GC Strategies.
55 government contracts over $10,000 awarded to GC Strategies are documented on the Government of Canada web portal, with a total value of over $30 million. The list is not exhaustive, however, since ArriveCAN contracts are not included.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, did not stop on Wednesday to answer questions from journalists, contrary to his habit. However, he responded to the opposition during the question period. He promises an investigation and “consequences for all those who broke the law”.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, indicated on Wednesday that he would like to see the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) put under supervision. “Someone who loses such phenomenal sums of money cannot simply stay in office,” he said on Wednesday.
The leader of the New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, for his part denounces a “waste” of 60 million, which proves according to him that “Justin Trudeau is disconnected from people’s reality”.
The basic ArriveCAN application was paid $80,000 in April 2020, for its versions on Android and iOS, although the CBSA clarifies that it never anticipated such a final cost. At least $59.5 million was added to the bill to update it 177 times, estimates the Auditor General. This amount was also used to create a website, open a call center, or develop digital proof of vaccination, for example.