By The Canadian Press

Feds didn’t follow procurement rules in contracts with company behind ArriveCan app

Jun 10, 2025 | 8:05 AM

OTTAWA — Federal organizations failed to follow procurement and security rules when awarding contracts to a company behind the controversial ArriveCan app, the auditor general said Tuesday.

Last year Karen Hogan published an audit of ArriveCan, finding the government did not deliver value to taxpayers and that three federal departments disregarded federal policies and controls in awarding contracts for the development of the app.

GCStrategies was granted the largest share of those contracts. It lost its security status last year and last week the government banned it from federal contracts for seven years over its conduct.

On Tuesday Hogan published a wider audit of 106 other contracts awarded to GCStrategies by 31 federal organizations between 2015 and 2024, and found in many of those cases procurement rules were also not followed.

Hogan also found federal organizations and departments often provided little evidence to show the work they had paid for had actually been done.

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The maximum value of those contracts was more than $90 million but only about $65 million was paid out.

The report says that, for half of the contracts requiring security clearances, federal organizations weren’t able to show that those doing the work had the appropriate clearances before the contract was awarded.

Federal organizations lacked documentation to show that they had confirmed security clearances for just over one in five of the contracts Hogan’s office examined.

The report also found that federal organizations failed to monitor contract work and performance. Many accepted poorly drafted timesheets or failed to collect them at all. Others couldn’t show that the people doing the work had the required experience and qualifications.

Hogan said that in more than 80 per cent of the contracts examined, organizations couldn’t prove that the fees paid didn’t exceed market rates.

In just under half of the contracts, the report says, organizations had “little to no evidence” to show that deliverables were received. Despite that, payments were still made.

The report says most contracts were awarded without organizations assessing whether they should call for bids. Many organizations justified the need for the contracts by pointing to increased workloads or public servants’ absences.

In September, the House of Commons agreed unanimously to ask Hogan to look into contracts.

Hogan said the audit findings echoed those from previous audits by her office.

“I said it back then, and I’ll repeat it now: I have no reason to believe that this is unique to two vendors,” she said. “And that’s why I believe the government needs to take a step back and look at why this behaviour is happening.”

Hogan noted she did not make any recommendations in the report, because she said, the rules don’t need to be updated, they just need to be followed.

“It’s already happening, to make sure that the rules that are in place are followed, well understood across departments,” Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound told reporters, following the Liberal cabinet meeting Tuesday.

He said it is up to departments overseeing contracts “to make sure that in each and every department, the rules are followed” and that proper documentation is submitted and reviewed.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday that the government needs to go to GC Strategies and “get our money back.”

He said all public servants who failed to follow procurement policies should be fired and that politicians should be held accountable too.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2025.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press