Massive $3.5bn error revealed in Trudeau’s Covid relief scheme for Canadian businesses

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau splashed billions in loan to ineligible recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic, an audit report revealed Monday (Dec 2). Auditor General Karen Hogan tabled the report in the House of Commons, which highlighted several irregularities in granting the contract involving public money and ensuring efficiency.

It is to be noted that Ottawa launched its Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) programme in the face of the raging pandemic to help businesses brave the economic doldrums. The programme saw the distribution of more than $49 billion in loan to over 900,000 small businesses. Now, Hogan’s report has found that over $3.5 billion of this fund went to ineligible and wrong beneficiaries.

According to the audit report, Canada’s Department of Finance also failed to provide “effective oversight” of more than $853 million in administrative spending.

“CEBA represented a significant expenditure of public funds to support small Canadian businesses facing economic challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hogan’s report highlighted.

“While there was some flexibility in how government organisations approached program planning, reporting, and contract processes during the pandemic to achieve results quickly, there was still an expectation of due diligence and controls around how public money was spent,” the report added.

The report said the Trudeau government failed to manage the programme and over-relied on a single private contractor to manage the fund—Accenture, a global IT giant.

Of the $230 million budget set aside for contract spending, almost 91 per cent went to Accenture and the IT giant was awarded the contract without competition.

The audit report highlighted how the Trudeau government didn’t have a plan in place to collect loan payments if businesses default on them. Of the total loans dished out, more than $8.5 billion were still to be repaid by businesses at the end of March this year.

(With inputs from agencies)