Hasty COVID-19 aid for N.B. workers lacked controls, says auditor-general
CBC
The New Brunswick government's emergency aid to laid-off workers rolled out in the early weeks of the pandemic with poor controls, weak contracts and inadequate monitoring, according to a new report by the auditor-general.
The New Brunswick Workers' emergency income benefit was hastily put together in March 2020 to provide $900 in one-time payments to people laid off when their employers were ordered to shut down.
"We recognize the department was operating under an accelerated timeline and external pressure to develop the NBWEIB program," says the report tabled at the legislature Thursday morning.
"We believe this led to gaps in the planning process and implementation."
The program distributed $37 million before the federal government stepped in with the Canada emergency response benefit.
The report by acting Auditor-General Janice Leahy says the province failed to get social insurance numbers from 827 people receiving benefits, "increasing fraud risk."
The Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, which ran the program, provided "little evidence for program planning or rationale for key decisions made" and there was no appeal process.