Auditor General: feds broke rules in contracts with company behind ArriveCan

ArriveCan is making headlines again.  

According to an auditor general report released Tuesday (June 10), federal organizations did not adhere to proper procurement and security protocols when granting contracts to the company responsible for the pandemic-era app.

Last year, Karen Hogan released an audit of the ArriveCan app, concluding that the government failed to provide good value for taxpayers and that three federal departments ignored key policies and oversight measures when awarding contracts for the app's development.

ArriveCan was meant to control the Canadian border at the height of the pandemic, but but Hogan said federal agencies awarded contracts to build the app without bidding, maintained shoddy financial records and failed to deliver the best value to taxpayers.

ArriveCan is an an app that debuted as a mandatory requirement for entry into Canada in April 2020 and was then made optional in 2022 as a reworked Advance CBSA Declaration tool.

GCStrategies received the largest portion of the contracts to build the platform. The company lost its security clearance in 2023, and just last week, it was barred from bidding on federal contracts for seven years due to its conduct.

Yesterday, as reported by the Canadian Press, Hogan released a broader audit examining 106 additional contracts awarded to GCStrategies by 31 federal organizations between 2015 and 2024.

In many of those cases, she found that procurement rules had also been violated.

Her review also revealed that federal agencies and departments frequently lacked adequate documentation to prove that the work they paid for was actually completed.

While the total potential value of those contracts exceeded $90 million, only about $65 million was ultimately disbursed.

According to the report, in about half of the contracts that required security clearances, federal organizations couldn’t demonstrate that the individuals performing the work had the necessary clearances before the contracts were awarded.

For just over 20 per cent of the contracts reviewed, agencies had no records showing they had verified the required security clearances.

The audit also revealed that many federal organizations failed to properly oversee the contracted work and assess performance.

Some accepted incomplete or poorly prepared timesheets, while others didn’t collect timesheets at all. In several cases, there was no evidence that workers met the necessary experience or qualification standards.

Hogan also noted that in over 80 per cent of the contracts reviewed, federal organizations were unable to show that the fees paid were in line with market rates.

The report states that in nearly half of the contracts, organizations had "little to no evidence" that the agreed-upon deliverables were actually provided — yet payments were still issued regardless, CP reports.

"The worst financial record-keeping"

“This is probably some of the worst financial record-keeping that I’ve seen,” Hogan told the House public accounts committee last February.

CBSA previously said ArriveCan cost $54 million to create. However, Hogan said the real cost is more like $59.5 million (but due to poor record-keeping, the true price tag may be impossible to determine).

Last year, Ottawa stated that ArriveCan was built “during an extraordinary time and on an emergency basis.”

“ArriveCan data was an integral part of Canada's monitoring program for the early detection and identification of new COVID-19 variants of concern, and critical to the federal government's ability to monitor, assess, and respond to COVID-19 as it evolved,” CBSA said in a statement at the time.

The agency added that travellers “saved significant time by using the app” – about five minutes each time they crossed the border.

“It was an effective and necessary tool to collect mandatory health information while facilitating travel and trade,” the agency said.

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