Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Commissioner Bob Hamilton may have been less than forthcoming in testimony regarding the number of employees at the tax agency who were involved in fraudulent claims for COVID benefits.
CERB was intended for Canadians who lost their jobs during COVID, or who had their income disrupted because of the epidemic. This new information contradicts Hamilton’s previous testimony at the Commons public accounts committee on Feb. 2, 2022, when he said that there were “not very many” employees involved, according to Blacklock’s Reporter on July 4.
“I don’t have the numbers right in front of me,” Hamilton said. “Not very many, obviously. I don’t believe any of those cases have gone into a criminal investigation.”
New Brunswick Conservative MP challenged the CRA commissioner, asking if Hamilton could provide the committee with numbers. The MP said, “I’m afraid ‘not very many’ is not a sufficient answer.”
“I will endeavour to get you those numbers,” responded Hamilton. He was contacted by The Epoch Times for more information but did not respond by press time.
CRA later told the committee that only 10 CRA employees fraudulently claimed $2,000 pandemic relief cheques which were intended for unemployed Canadians under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program.
Diane Lebouthillier, Canada’s revenue minister, in an Inquiry of Ministry dated March 3, said the number of CRA staff involved in fraud was so low that disclosing any more information would pose a privacy risk.
“The specific number of terminations is too small to disclose without creating a privacy risk that could lead to one or more of the individuals being identified,” wrote the Minister.
On July 1, CRA told the National Post that 20 CRA employees have been fired to date, and another 600 are still under investigation.
The CRA has not said why these figures were not previously disclosed. On Feb. 2 at a routine hearing of the public accounts committee, Regina, Saskatchewan, Conservative MP Michael Kram asked if any employees were found to have fraudulently claimed benefits.
Management staff with Employment Canada were providing testimony on how the pandemic relief programs had been managed. Kram asked Mary Crescenzi, assistant deputy minister of the Integrity Services Branch (ISB) of Service Canada, “How many employees were subject to internal investigation?”
“To date we have terminated 49 individuals,” replied Crescenzi.
“Forty-nine now former employees at the department were terminated for fraud related to COVID benefits, is that correct?” clarified Kram.
“It would be in regard to misrepresentation of their situation when they would be applying for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit,” said Crescenzi.
“How many of those cases were referred to law enforcement?” asked Kram. “There was no referral to law enforcement,” the assistant minister replied.
Kram also inquired as to whether the 49 employees had monies “clawed back.”
“Those monies have been established as overpayments that must be repaid and those are being treated as any other Canadian who received benefits they were not entitled to,” said Crescenzi.
She also said none of the employees had used their work computers to fraudulently claim benefits.
“As part of some of our internal investigations it was discovered some of our employees had availed themselves as any Canadian to apply for Canada Emergency Response Benefits on their own time,” said Crescenzi. “I want to be clear they did not use any internal systems in doing so.”
Andrew Chen contributed to this report.
