The RCMP is conducting more than half a dozen criminal investig popcorn buds ations into federal contracting, the national police force revealed Tuesday.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme and Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn provided the new details during an appearance before the House of Commons committee on public accounts, which is holding hearings into Auditor-General Karen Hogan’s February report on contracting issues related to the ArriveCan app.
Dep. Commissioner Flynn later said the investigations include one focusing on ArriveCan, a pandemic-era app for international travellers that cost taxpayers an estimated $59.5-milli bulk weed on, and other issues related to federal government contracting.
“With respect to this type of activity, there’s a broad number of investigations. Specific to ArriveCan, there’s one investigation specific to ArriveCan,” he said.
“So one general investigation and offshoots from that investigation?” asked Conservative MP Larry Brock.
“Not offshoots wholesale cannabis marketplace , but if you look at ArriveCan as well as similar types of situations, there are ‘many,’ is the category I would put it in. I won’t give an exact number.”
“So more than six?” Mr. Brock asked.
“I’ll say yes. So that’ll be as precise as I can get,” Dep. Commissioner Flynn responded.
Issues related to ArriveCan have spurred months of committee hearings and numerous investigations by various watchdog agencies. The federal procurement watchdog said in April that t wholesale cannabis he government’s multi-billion dollar contracting system urgently needs a wide-ranging overhaul.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said in March that “significant changes” to federal procurement are needed. His ministers have been releasing policy changes to the way public servants award government contracts.
The Auditor-General’s report flagged concerns about interactions between private consultants who worked on the app and public servants. It also sharply criticized the lack of record-keeping and oversight of the millions of dollars spent on the app.
The report said the government spent about $59.5-million on consultants to help build and maintain the app, but also said a definitive total was not possible to calculate given the poor record-keeping related to the project.
Ms. Hogan told MPs in February that she met with the RCMP to inform them of her audit’s findings prior to the report’s release.
The RCMP initially said it was assessing the findings of Ms. Hogan’s report. Then in March, Commissione wholesale cannabis r Duheme said the force was investigating ArriveCan.
During an interview with CTV News at the time, Commissioner Duheme described it as an expansion of an existing investigation that was not directly focused on ArriveCan, but was looking into allegations that involved people with links to the app.
The Globe and Mail first reported in October that the RCMP is investigating allegations of misconduct involving an outsourced IT project at the Canada Border Services Agency. Those allegations were brought forward by small Montreal-based software company Botler. The CBSA oversaw both the Botler project and ArriveCan and Botler’s two co-founders interacted with CBSA officials and private contractors who also worked on ArriveCan.
Botler raised concerns about cozy ties between public servants and GCStrategies, the private contractor they say they were told to work with by the CBSA. GCStrategies was also the primary contractor on ArriveCan.
The CBSA launched its own investigation into Botler’s allegations and also referred them to the RCMP.
In April, the RCMP searched the home of GCStrategies managing partner Kristian Firth as part of its investigation into the Botler allegations.
Mr. Firth was also summoned to the bar of the House of Commons in April for a rare public rebuke after MPs on the government operations committee reported that he should be found in contempt of Parliament for not fully answering questions.