Auditor General Discovers Waste And Misconduct In Trudeau’s $50 Billion CEBA Program
Ottawa, ON – After nine years, Justin Trudeau has lost control of his spending. A few weeks ago, the Parliamentary Budget Officer reported that the deficit will likely be $7 billion dollars higher than the Liberal Government’s own $40 billion spending cap. And since 2015, Justin Trudeau has added more to the national debt than all other Prime Ministers combined.
Now, the Auditor General revealed today that Justin Trudeau’s CEBA program was yet another billion-dollar boondoggle. In fact, $3.5 billion in taxpayers’ money was paid to approximately 77,160 recipients who did not meet eligibility requirements. This means that 9 percent of the total 898,000 loan recipients were ineligible for the money they received.
The Auditor General also found that Trudeau’s Ministry of Finance did not provide effective oversight of the CEBA program and left important program elements unaddressed.
On top of this, a series of non-competitive contracts were awarded to Accenture, after the Trudeau Government allowed Accenture to lead the informal procurement process. This resulted in Accenture receiving $313 million – or 92 percent – of the total $342 million in contracts awarded to support the delivery of the CEBA program. This happened even though Accenture performed much of the work in Brazil instead of Canada, as the Liberal Government had claimed.
The Auditor General also determined that the Trudeau Government outsourced many key aspects of the CEBA program management without ensuring that Canadians were getting value for money. They also did not follow the principles of fairness and transparency in vendor selection, with Accenture determining the scope and prices of contracts instead of federal officials.
Justin Trudeau is not worth the cost or the corruption. Only Common Sense Conservatives will bring home accountability to Ottawa by firing the high-priced consultants and fixing the budget.