Auditor-General Karen Hogan has been called to give an update on the status of her ArriveCan audit, after The Globe and Mail reported that both the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency are investigating misconduct allegations related to a project with links to the controversial app.
Conservative MP John Williamson, the chair of the public accounts committee, announced Tuesday that he has scheduled an emergency meeting Thursday to hear from Ms. Hogan and deputy auditor-general Andrew Hayes. The House of Commons is on recess this week for Thanksgiving.
Mr. Williamson said on social media that the meeting is in response to the RCMP’s investigation into allegations of misconduct with contracting links to ArriveCan.
News of the investigation was first reported last week by The Globe, which also reported that the CBSA has received warnings about cozy ties between IT consultants and federal officials.
The allegations were brought to the agency’s attention by a company called Botler that performed contract work for the CBSA. The company worked on a pilot project related to detecting sexual harassment. The project was funded from a larger $21.2-million contract for general services that was also used by the agency to fund outsourcing work related to the ArriveCan app.
The pilot project and ArriveCan involve the same three technology companies – GCStrategies, Dalian Enterprises and Coradix – and were overseen by some of the same senior public servants. They also both share layers of subcontracting that keep key details – such as what the work involved and who received payments – from being disclosed to the public.
The House of Commons voted 174 to 149 last fall in favour of a motion calling on the Auditor-General to audit spending on the ArriveCan app, after The Globe reported that the price tag to build and maintain the app was on pace to exceed $54-million. The vote was approved over the objections of Liberal MPs.
This week’s public accounts meeting with the Auditor-General was requested by committee member and Conservative MP Kelly McCauley.
“We need to ensure that her report will cover this new information that has come out,” said Mr. McCauley in an interview. The MP, who is also chair of the government operations committee that has studied the ArriveCan issue extensively, said federal officials should have told MPs that they had received complaints about some of the companies involved.
Botler co-founders Ritika Dutt and Amir Morv shared correspondence with The Globe that shows they raised formal concerns to senior agency officials about the three IT contractors in September, 2021, and then again in November, 2022.
“I think they probably willfully did not bring that forward, and they should have, and we need that as part of the Auditor-General’s report,” Mr. McCauley said of the CBSA leadership. “Otherwise it’s a disservice to taxpayers and a slap in the face.”
The Auditor-General has not yet set a firm date to release the ArriveCan audit report, but office spokesperson Vincent Frigon said the plan is for it to be tabled in Parliament before MPs are scheduled to break for the holidays on Dec. 15.
Mr. Frigon, who confirmed Ms. Hogan will appear Thursday, said the RCMP investigation will not have any impact on the Auditor-General’s work. He declined to say whether her audit has uncovered any potential criminality.
“We do not discuss our audit findings until after our audit report has been tabled in Parliament,” he said. “We contact the RCMP when situations come to our attention during our audit work that require investigation by law enforcement authorities.”
Mr. Frigon said the Auditor-General is not obligated to suspend an audit if potential criminality is found.
The public accounts meeting is separate from another potential study by MPs on the government operations committee. Conservative and NDP MPs on that committee have said they intend to push next week to reopen the committee’s own study of ArriveCan in order to hear from Botler and the consultants and public servants they worked with.