Public officials whose names have been mentioned multiple times in parliamentary hearings on the Alivekan controversy have denied responsibility for the project’s contract problems.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) official Diane Daly appeared Wednesday before the House of Commons public accounting committee, which is investigating AliveCan’s rising costs.
Daly told the committee he was seconded to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) during the development of AliveCan. He said he had no authority to make contracting decisions and maintained his role was primarily administrative.
“Any decisions are not mine to make. I have no right to make any decisions,” she said.
Daly also claimed he was nervous about testifying and feared he could lose his job by telling lawmakers the truth.
The ArriveCan app was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic as a tool to help the government collect and track health information on people arriving in Canada.
Earlier this year, the auditor general reported numerous contractual irregularities surrounding the app and said the high cost of the project – estimated at about $60 million – was due in part to the government’s overreliance on outside contractors.
Mr Daly has been named a number of times in previous committee hearings, including by Christian Firth, one of Alivecan’s main contractors, who appeared before the full House of Representatives in April.
In a scathing new report, Canada’s auditor general said the ultimate cost of the ArriveCan app is “undeterminable” due to poor record-keeping at the Canada Border Services Agency. Andrew Chan analyzes the report’s findings on the pandemic-era tool, which is estimated to have cost Canadians about $60 million.
The auditor general’s report said Firth’s company, GC Strategies, helped develop requirements for the $25 million ArriveCan contract that was ultimately awarded to GC Strategies.
Mr Firth disagreed that the terms of the contract were in his company’s favour and, when pressed to identify the person he had contacted about the terms, named Mr Daly.
Daly said Wednesday that he wasn’t responsible for developing the contract requirements and that he had forwarded any information he received from Firth to the CBSA’s IT team.
When questioned, Daly said she didn’t know why Firth was singling her out in his testimony.
“I didn’t have the expertise to know what IT was, so if Mr Firth sent me something it would have been forwarded to IT services,” she said.
Daly also claimed to have raised several issues with GC Strategies’ documents relating to the project.
“I had numerous exchanges with Christian Firth about the inaccurate invoices,” she told the committee.
Daly said GC Strategies, which is currently under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was a contractor pre-approved by the PSPC, suggesting there may be problems with the police’s vetting process.
CBSA employee Diane Daly said during a parliamentary committee hearing related to the AliveCan investigation that she had no idea why AliveCan contractor Christian Firth accused her.
Mr Daly is afraid of losing his job.
In his opening statement, Daly said he feared the consequences of testifying accurately.
“I’m here to tell the truth but I’m very scared I’ll lose my job,” she said.
Daly said he felt pressured by some of his superiors to give false statements to CBSA internal investigators and was subsequently placed on administrative leave.
Daly’s comments come after two other public servants alleged they had been made scapegoats for Alivekan’s failings.
Antonio Utano and Cameron MacDonald told a House of Commons committee in February that they had been suspended without pay after giving evidence at an earlier committee meeting.
Utano and McDonald said their former boss, Minh Doan, was the one who selected GC Strategies for Alivecan and accused him of lying to lawmakers about the project.
Appearing before the committee, Doan denied the allegations and suggested Utano and McDonald had close ties to Firth and his partners.
Daly on Wednesday lamented the finger-pointing that has taken place among public servants in previous committee hearings.
“When senior management and political appointees pit federal employees against each other, it’s akin to making malicious 911 calls against a colleague,” she said.
Mr Daly told the committee he had not seen either Mr Utano or Mr McDonald engage in any unlawful conduct and, when questioned, said he could not confirm whether Mr Doorn had selected GC Strategies for the Alivecan project.
