Auditor General's Report on Corruption in Work of Canada Border Services Agency
On February 12, Federal Auditor General Karen Hogan released her report on the procurement of what is called the ArriveCan app. The ArriveCan app was used to require travellers to Canada during the pandemic to electronically submit travel information in advance, including vaccination status and COVID-19 test results, names and addresses of who they were visiting, and more. It greatly increased personal data collection and connections by the government and the private contractors managing the information. It was launched in April 2020 and was mandatory until October 2022 at border crossings and has been optional since then.
Hogan's department carried out an investigation as called for in a motion in the House of Commons on November 2, 2022, following allegations of irregularities in how contracts to develop the app were awarded, as well as concerns about subcontracting and rising costs. At the same time investigations were started by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and RCMP after complaints about how and to which companies CBSA was awarding contracts were received from a Montreal-based software company that had had dealings with those companies.
The original cost for the ArriveCan app estimated by the CBSA was $80,000. In her report the Auditor General estimated a total cost of $59.5 million, higher than the CBSA's estimated final cost of $54 million. The Auditor General said that she was unable to determine the exact cost because of the CBSA's "poor documentation and weak controls." The report says that 18 per cent of invoices submitted by outside contractors lacked "sufficient supporting documentation" and that the CBSA itself has estimated that $12.2 million of the cost could have been unrelated to ArriveCan. Hogan told the House Public Accounts Committee that "There could be amounts there that should not be linked to ArriveCan, but there also could be amounts that are linked to ArriveCan that were not flagged in the books."
The use of subcontractors at the start of the process to
create
and
manage the app was deemed reasonable as there was an
urgent need
to
facilitate border crossings in the early stages of the
pandemic,
but it
was expected that the public service would take over
which did
not
happen. The report estimates that the per diem costs for
external
ArriveCan contractors was $1,090, while the average daily
cost
of an
equivalent internal position is $675.
It once again shows that
the practice adopted by governments to pay narrow private
interests to
carry out work which falls in the sphere of the public
service
is
socially irresponsible and corrupt. More importantly,
given the
corruption all around, there is certainly doubt about how
the
data
collected was shared, or sold or utilized, by contractors
and
the
government. No mention has been made of this central
problem of
data collection.
The report also flagged that the biggest contractor GC Strategies -- a two-person consulting firm -- was given a sole-source contract in April 2020 despite a lack of evidence that the firm even provided a proposal document for the project, let alone whether it had the ability to carry out what was required. CBC News reports that the Auditor General could not determine which government official made the final decision to select GC Strategies for the April 2020 contract. CBC also reported that GC Strategies was involved in establishing requirements that bidders would have to meet for a subsequent competitive contract worth $25 million, which was then awarded to GC Strategies itself, an apparent "conflict of interest."
Canada's procurement ombudsman had previously reported that the criteria used in awarding the $25 million contract were "overly restrictive" and "heavily favoured" GC Strategies. It was also reported that GC Strategies copied and pasted government-listed requirements for subcontractors on numerous occasions when submitting proposals to CBSA officials.
Other examples of corruption, euphemistically called "possible conflicts of interest," include that CBSA officials accepted gifts from certain contractors that were not disclosed to their supervisors. These were not taken up by the auditor general because they are subject to the ongoing investigations by the CBSA and RCMP. CBSA President Erin O'Gorman told the House government operations committee in January that so far the CBSA investigation has found "a pattern of persistent collaboration between certain officials and GC Strategies. They show efforts to circumvent or ignore established procurement processes and roles and responsibilities." This whole situation again calls into question a key issue, which is what was done with all the data collected and how did ignoring "established responsibilities" impact this issue of great concern to the public.
While this may be true, it appears that the federal ministers themselves, responsible for awarding pay-the-rich schemes in the first place, will be let off scot-free. Hiding the depth of the corruption which is integral to the anti-social offensive and takeover of functions which rightfully belong to public servants and the public sector has become par for the course. It underscores the urgent need to change the direction of the economy to one which is human-centred and carry out democratic renewal so that private interests can no longer usurp the positions of power and decision-making.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Numbers 1-2 - January - February 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540012.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca