A key figure at the centre of the ArriveCan scandal encouraged a major accounting firm to work with GC Strategies, a two-man company that received $19.1 million to work on the controversial application.
According to KPMG Partner and National Service Leader in Cybersecurity Hartaj Nijjar, the company was contacted by former Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) official Antonio Utano, who encouraged it to work under GC Strategies on the app. Mr. Utano was suspended from his government position without pay in January over allegations of misconduct related to ArriveCan.
When asked by Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné why KPMG, which has 10,000 employees, chose to subcontract under GC Strategies to work on the ArriveCan app, Mr. Nijjar responded that the company follows “rigorous client acceptance processes.”
“At the time, GC Strategies was an organization that had been working in the government sector for a number of years successfully and they had a large government contract,” Mr. Nijjar said. “And our checks did not indicate any adverse implications of engaging with GC Strategies.”
Auditor General Karen Hogan’s Feb. 12 report on ArriveCan, which was used to track the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers entering Canada, found that contracting and management practices around the app were improper and key records were inexplicably missing. The report also found there was little documentation to show why GC Strategies was chosen for the project.
The RCMP has also confirmed it is currently investigating the ArriveCan app.
