Ottawa has prohibited the largest contractor who developed the ArriveCan app from engaging in contracts or real property agreements with the government for a period of seven years.
Public Services and Procurement Canada has declared that GC Strategies Inc. is “ineligible” as a result of an evaluation of the supplier’s conduct.
The auditor general claims that GC Strategies was awarded over $19 million for the project, and as a result, the department suspended the security status of the company last year.
The Federal Government is requesting $1.6 million from an IT subcontractor in order to address allegations of “unjust enrichment.”
The majority of contracts awarded to Indigenous enterprises through the federal program are not audited.
The Auditor General will investigate all government disbursements made to GC Strategies, the contractor for ArriveCan.
The government also prohibited Dalian Enterprises and Coradix Technology Consulting, two other companies that contributed to the ArriveCan project, from participating in procurement opportunities.
This action followed an earlier decision to suspend the company from procurement processes within the department.
The app was introduced by the federal government in April 2020 as a means of digitizing customs and immigration declarations and monitoring the health and contact information of individuals entering Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project’s cost was inflated to $60 million as a result of the government’s inadequate record-keeping and its dependence on external contractors, according to a report by Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan.
The initial ArriveCan contract was valued at a mere $2.35 million.
Hogan is scheduled to conduct an audit on Tuesday June 10, that will prioritize the evaluation of whether the contracts awarded and payments made to GC Strategies and other incorporated companies were “in accordance with applicable policy instruments” and represented a fair value for money.
According to Public Services and Procurement Canada, the government is making efforts to “fortify the integrity of the procurement process.”
GC Strategies and Public Services and Procurement Canada have been contacted by the Canadian Press for comment.
Last year, Kristian Firth, a partner at GC Strategies, was compelled to appear before the House of Commons counsel after declining to respond to inquiries during a committee hearing.
Firth was subjected to a two-hour grilling by MPs; however, the Liberals declined to participate in the interrogation after a doctor’s note was submitted to the clerk of the House, which advised him not to attend due to mental health concerns.
The federal government assigned GC Strategies the responsibility of assembling a team to complete certain aspects of the ArriveCan app, despite the fact that the company did not develop or administer the application.
