'We paid too much': Canada's AG blasts CBSA over ArriveCan app

Canada's auditor general has found that those involved in the contracting, development and implementation of the controversial ArriveCan application showed a 'glaring disregard' for basic management practices. The report pegs the cost of the app at $59.5 million.

Canada's auditor general has found that those involved in the contracting, development and implementation of the controversial Arrivecan application showed a "glaring disregard" for basic management practices.

Ultimately, Canadians "paid too much for this application," according to Auditor General Karen Hogan.

In a new performance audit tabled on Monday, Auditor General Karen Hogan points to failures by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) in connection to their work on the COVID-19-era traveller contact application.

The report pegs the cost of the app at $59.5 million—more than the previously estimated $54 million—but cautions that the true cost was "impossible" to calculate because of CBSA's "poor financial record keeping."

Hogan told the House Public Accounts Committee that, while assessing the application, she came across the worst bookkeeping she's seen in years. This, after she's recently examined other pandemic-era spending such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and federal wage subsidy that saw billions misallocated.

"I am deeply concerned by what this audit didn't find," Hogan testified. "We didn’t find records to accurately show how much was spent on what, who did the work, or how and why contracting decisions were made. And that paper trail should have existed." 

Hogan issued eight overarching recommendations for reform, including one calling on implicated federal departments and agencies to improve their fiscal management, fully document interactions with contractors, and attach clear deliverables to contracts awarded.