Canada's Auditor-General estimates that the ArriveCAN travel app, originally expected to cost $80,000, actually cost almost $60 million, but addthat poor record keeping makes it impossible to determine the true figure.
Total cost of ArriveCan 'impossible to determine' due to poor record-keeping, AG report finds | CBC News } Darren Major:
February 12, 2024 - "The final cost of the controversial ArriveCan app is impossible to determine due to poor financial record-keeping, a new auditor general report has found. It is just one of the findings that Canada's Auditor General Karen Hogan highlighted in a damning report about the pandemic-era tool....
"Hogan found that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Public Services and Procurement Canada 'repeatedly failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development and implementation of the ArriveCan application.' 'This is probably the first example that I've seen such a glaring disregard for some of the most basic and fundamental policies and rules,' Hogan told the House public accounts committee on Monday.
"'I have to say I am deeply concerned by what this audit didn't find,' she told MPs on the committee. '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."
"CBSA said previously the development and operation of the app cost an estimated $54 million. Hogan estimates the project cost was $59.5 million — but, as the report notes, she was only able to arrive at that figure based on the information available to her.
"'We found that financial records were not well-maintained by the Canada Border Services Agency. We were unable to determine a precise cost for the ArriveCan application because of [the agency's] poor documentation and weak controls,' the report says.... 18 per cent of invoices submitted by outside contractors that worked on the app didn't have 'sufficient supporting documentation' to accurately determine the cost of the project.
"Hogan told the committee that the government 'paid too much' for the project and that poor record-keeping compromised accountability. The report also notes that the CBSA has estimated that $12.2 million of the $59.5 million estimate could have been unrelated to ArriveCan. Hogan said she was unable to determine what was included in spending on the app and what wasn't.
"CBSA depended heavily on third-party contractors to develop the app. The report cites that reliance as a major factor in its ballooning costs. Hogan's report suggests that a reduction in the use of outside contractors could have lowered costs.... As an example, the report estimates that the per diem costs for external ArriveCan contractors was $1,090, while the average daily cost of an equivalent internal position is $675.
"The CBSA said in a statement Monday that it's implementing the recommendations Hogan made in her report. The agency also argued that the app needed to be rolled out quickly at the start of the pandemic.... Hogan told MPs on Monday that seeking outside help for the app at the start of the pandemic was 'reasonable.' But she said she would have expected less reliance on outside contractors as the project continued. 'We didn't see that transition, whether it be that the public service take over some of the operations of the application or that there be a transfer of some knowledge or skill,' she said.
"Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blasted the government over the app's costs and accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of 'wasting [taxpayers'] money.' He promised to cut back on third-party outsourcing if his party forms government after the next election. 'Public servants do the work more accountably and they do it more affordably,' Poilievre told reporters outside the House of Commons on Monday. 'We're going to save money by reversing Trudeau's doubling of outsourcing.'"
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/auditor-general-report-arrivecan-1.7111043
ArriveCAN app was a hot mess: auditor general report | About That | CBC News | February 13, 2024:
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