76% of ArriveCan Contractors Did No Work on the App, Procurement Watchdog Finds

Over 75 percent of contractors hired to work on the ArriveCan application did not do any work on it, according to the procurement watchdog’s review of the file. “In roughly 76% of applicable contracts, resources proposed in the winning bid did not perform any work on the contract,” said a report by Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic released on Jan. 29. “While it is recognized that there may be legitimate reasons for some proposed resources being unavailable, the number of times it occurred and the absence of file documentation explaining why these resources were not made available raised serious concerns with these contracts.” The ArriveCan app was used to track the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers entering Canada during the pandemic. Critics of the app have said it could’ve been developed for a fraction of its $54 million price tag, and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO) has been investigating procurement surrounding the app for several months....