GC Strategies: The Consulting Firm Behind the ArriveCAN Fiasco Also Secured Contracts from CBSA for Three Other Applications

The value of these contracts awarded to the firm, which has only two employees, totaled $8.3 million. The last payments were made in June 2023, the CBSA said. It did not indicate whether there had been any cost overruns.

“This is very concerning,” responded the national president of the Customs and Immigration Union, Mark Weber, who was unaware of the existence of two of these three applications until The Press the contact. “I think we have the capacity to do a lot of these things internally,” he added, deploring the Agency’s “default” use of contract workers.

The CBSA undertook an audit of contracts awarded in recent years in the wake of the Auditor General’s damning report on application cost overruns ArriveCAN. This audit is expected to be completed in the summer of 2024, and the CBSA is committed to publishing the results on its website.

The revelations come as GC Strategies partners Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony are scheduled to appear via video conference before the government operations committee on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

The sergeant-at-arms will therefore not have to intervene to bring them in by force as the elected officials had asked him.

« We are working hard to address gaps in our contracting documentation, processes and controls,” said CBSA President Erin O’Gorman in a statement sent to The Press.

Subcontractors

The other three applications are not used as widely as has been ArriveCAN during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them is still in the design stage while another is in the testing stage. The CBSA retained the services of GC Strategies to provide IT consultants to help develop them.

• GC Strategies thus obtained $6.7 million for the design of the Low Value E-Commerce Inspection System. This application uses advanced electronic data to help border services officers process courier shipments imported into Canada. The application is currently being tested in Hamilton and Vancouver and is expected to be rolled out nationally within a year.
• The firm also pocketed $1.2 million to find next-generation wearable devices with an app to help front-line border services officers assess the risks of travelers and vehicles. They began to be distributed in 2017 and are notably used on tourist buses in Niagara Falls.
• Ultimately, GC Strategies was awarded a $442,000 contract for the design of IPresentMe. This application, which has not yet been launched, is intended to enable new arrivals subject to conditions under the Immigration law to comply with it remotely and thus avoid detention. They will be able to confirm their identity and location using their smartphone. IPresentMe will only be available to individuals who are expressly required to report to the CBSA as a condition of their release and who choose this app as a means of doing so.

The Agency could not indicate whether GC Strategies had used subcontractors for the development of these three applications. She referred the matter to the Department of Public Services and Procurement (PSPC).

“Canada does not have a contractual relationship with subcontractors. The main contractor is responsible for the performance and contractual obligations of the subcontractors,” the Ministry simply replied. He did not want to reveal the names of these subcontractors for reasons of confidentiality since this information is considered to come from a third party.

“It adds another layer to the questions we have for this company,” commented the Quebec lieutenant for the Conservatives, Pierre Paul-Hus. It also calls into question the management of the CBSA and the government in relation to GC Strategies. »

For Bloc Québécois MP Julie Vignola, this new information confirms the need for an independent investigation and the placing of the CBSA under supervision.

There has been a shift away from what civil service should be, that is, teams of seasoned experts who are leaders in their specialty.

Julie Vignola, Bloc Québécois MP

In his statement to The Press, the CBSA also indicated that it is doing everything possible to “reduce its dependence” on IT subcontractors. Since June 2023, it says it has reduced the number of IT consultants it uses by around 25% and plans to lower it again by 25% “over the next year”. They will only be used “where there are gaps in technical knowledge” needed to maintain “our critical IT systems” and to train employees “to reduce long-term dependence on contracted resources », indicated Guillaume Bérubé, spokesperson for the CBSA.

The comptroller general recently revealed that GC Strategies and its predecessor, Coredal Systems Consulting, had won a total of nearly $108 million in contracts since 2011.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding cost overruns ofArriveCAN, the Ministry of Public Services and Procurement recently suspended GC Strategies’ security clearance until further notice. The firm thus finds itself completely excluded from the procurement process. Dalian Enterprises Inc. also lost his security clearance. This suspension also affects the joint venture that Dalian is forming with Coradix Technology Consulting to obtain contracts reserved for Indigenous people by the government.

With the collaboration of William Leclerc

The story so far

Auditor General Karen Hogan last month reported numerous irregularities in contracts awarded by the Border Services Agency for the development of the app ArriveCAN used at the border to enforce health measures during the pandemic.

The initial version of the app cost $80,000, but its cost skyrocketed to $59.5 million.

The firm GC Strategies, which has only two partners, obtained the largest share of this sum, i.e. 19.1 million. They are due to testify before a parliamentary committee this week, for the third time.

We now learn that GC Strategies has obtained millions of dollars from the CBSA for the development of three other applications.

2024-03-12 12:34:29
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