Procurement Dep’t Announces Suspension of Companies That Worked on ArriveCan

A smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app is seen in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Giordano Ciampini

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has announced it has suspended the IT firm Dalian Enterprises following revelations the company received millions in government contracts for work on the ArriveCan app while its CEO was a Department of National Defence (DND) employee.

“PSPC has taken swift action to suspend the security status of Dalian Enterprises in response to information that recently came to light,” the agency announced on March 1.

PSPC added that Coradix Technology Consulting was also suspended, and this would disqualify the companies from eligibility considerations on future supply arrangements. Dalian and Coradix received $7.9 million to work on the ArriveCan app, which was used to check the COVID-19 vaccination status of those crossing the Canada-U.S. border.

“PSPC has a framework in place to prevent, detect and respond to situations of conflict of interest or potential wrongdoings to safeguard the integrity, fairness, openness and transparency of the federal procurement system,” the statement said.

ArriveCan has been at centre of a political firestorm due to its excessive costs, which totalled an estimated $59.5 million compared to early estimates of $80,000. The auditor general’s recently released report on ArriveCan found that proper contracting and management practices around the app at several government agencies were not followed, and standard records were inexplicably missing.

Last week, DND announced that Dalian CEO David Yeo had been suspended from his role at the department a day after the agency announced a review of its program supporting indigenous contractors. DND also said it was in the process of suspending contracts with Dalian.

Ottawa aims to give 5 percent of the total amount of government contracts to indigenous businesses by 2024. Mr. Yeo has claimed online to be the “direct descendent” of treaty-signing First Nations Indigenous Chief Robert Franklin of the Alderville First Nations.

Mr. Yeo is also a former candidate for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) for the riding of Ottawa West Nepean in the 2021 election. That year, the party ran against COVID-19 vaccine passports and other pandemic restrictions being implemented by federal and provincial governments.

In a statement released Feb. 29, the PPC said Mr. Yeo had not disclosed during the candidate vetting process that his company received a contract to work on ArriveCan, and that such a revelation would “obviously have been grounds for rejecting his candidacy.”

RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme confirmed on Feb. 27 that the force is investigating ArriveCan, including the potential misconduct of Dalian, Coradix, and GC Strategies. The allegations under RCMP investigation were initially brought forward by Montreal-based IT company Botler AI, whose founder said they witnessed “corruption” and “fraud” within the Canada Border Services agency.

The House of Commons also recently passed a Conservative motion calling for the Liberal government to publish the full cost of the ArriveCan app by March 18. This came a week after a Tory motion was passed for GC Strategies executives to be compelled to testify in front of the Government Operations Committee, or to face arrest.

The Epoch Times reached out to Dalian and Coradix for comment and did not receive a response.