ArriveCan App: Auditor General’s Report Finds ‘Glaring Disregard for Basic Management’

Auditor General of Canada Karen Hogan participates in a news conference, in Ottawa, on March 27, 2023. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

The Auditor General’s long-awaited report on the ArriveCan application has found several government agencies did not follow proper management and contracting practices when it came to the app’s development, and that key records around the development processes and financial decisions were missing.

“Overall, this audit shows a glaring disregard for basic management and contracting practices throughout ArriveCan’s development and implementation,” Auditor General Karen Hogan told MPs on the public accounts committee on Feb. 12.

“I am deeply concerned by what this audit didn’t find. 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.”

Ms. Hogan’s report found that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) failed to follow “good management practices” in the contracting, development, and implementation of ArriveCan.

The Auditor General’s report said CBSA’s documentation and financial records for the app were “so poor” that the precise cost of ArriveCan could not be determined, but estimates based on available information put the cost at $59.5 million. The CBSA previously said the development and operation of the app cost an estimated $54 million.

“We concluded that the public service did not ensure that Canadians received the best value for money. I will tell you that we paid too much for this application,” Ms. Hogan said.

The report also criticized CBSA for failing to follow policy, controls, and transparency around the app’s contracting process, which it said “restricted opportunities for competition and undermined value for money.” The agency’s decision to work with external resources and continually rely on them throughout the project resulted in the high costs, the report said.

Recommendations for CBSA

Ms. Hogan said CBSA employees also failed to disclose invitations to private functions that they received from ArriveCan contractors, which is required by the agency’s code of ethics.

“Public servants must always be transparent and accountable to Canadians for their use of public funds. An emergency does not mean that all the rules go out the window,” she said.

Records obtained by The Globe and Mail showed that the heads of IT-company GC Strategies, who outsourced work on the app, invited federal officials to several meetings at breweries in Ottawa, including an “ArriveCAN Whisky Tasting” event to celebrate the app’s one-year anniversary in April 2021.

The auditor general’s report recommended that the CBSA better maintain financial records and work with contractors to obtain accurate invoices broken down by project, contract, and task authorization. It also called for CBSA and PHAC to fully document its interactions with potential contractors, and that CBSA ensure potential bidders are not involved in “developing or preparing any part of a request for proposal.”

Following the tabling of the report, CBSA released a statement saying that they welcomed the recommendations.

“Some recommendations in the report have already been implemented and the CBSA will take further action to ensure management practices are aligned with policies and processes to maintain the confidence of Canadians,” CBSA said.

CBSA said ArriveCan was built during “an extraordinary time” and the agency worked “as quickly as possible” to replace a paper process that did not meet public health needs and was increasing wait times at the Canada-U.S. border. The agency said that the app improved the speed and quality of information collected at the border and saved time for travellers.

“Despite these circumstances, we recognize that the gaps found by the Auditor General are unacceptable and we are taking steps to ensure all government departments are better positioned to undertake projects of this nature in the future,” said CBSA.

Ongoing Investigation

The House of Commons passed a motion in November 2022 for the Auditor General to conduct a performance audit of ArriveCan, which was developed to check the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers crossing the Canada-U.S. Border.

Ms. Hogan’s report comes after months of investigations by MPs on the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO), who have attempted to determine how the ArriveCan app ended up costing a total of $54 million to develop. Critics of the app have said it could have been developed for a fraction of that price.

MPs on OGGO have also taken issue with the CBSA’s procurement processes related to the application’s development. OGGO uncovered that GC Strategies was paid $8.9 million as a general contractor on the ArriveCan project in 2020 before it outsourced the work to six other companies, pocketing a commission of between 15 and 30 percent.

In late 2022, the CBSA was asked to review allegations that came from Montreal software company Botler AI, who previously told OGGO they witnessed corruption and extortion within the CBSA while working on a project separate from ArriveCan. The CBSA then launched internal investigations and forwarded the allegations to the RCMP, who is also conducting its own investigation of misconduct related to the contracting.

A report on ArriveCan by Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic, which was released on Jan. 29, found that 76 percent of contractors hired to work on the application did not do any work on it, which raised “serious concerns.” Additionally, Mr. Jeglic was concerned with how often key documents related to ArriveCan’s development were missing.

On Feb. 7, Liberal, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois MPs suspended committee hearings on the ArriveCan application, arguing that further hearings could put at risk current CBSA and RCMP investigations into the scandal. This came after MPs on the committee read a preliminary statement of facts on the CBSA’s investigation of the app, which one MP described as “scary.”