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Ottawa, Canada
The Canadian federal government sent at least C$4.6 billion worth of Covid relief payments to those who were ineligible for them, said the countryâs Auditor General Karen Hogan while announcing the fall audit, on Tuesday. On the other hand, she praised the governmentâs swift procurement and vaccine distribution as well as the pandemic relief and benefits rolled out to the citizens.
The audit of benefits, âfound that overpayments of C$4.6 billion were made to ineligible individuals,â said Hogan. She added that an âestimated C$27.4 billion of payments to individuals and employers should be investigated furtherâ.
The reason for these overpayments has been attributed to the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau government's decision, in 2020, to rely on information provided by applicants and limit pre-payment controls to fast-track the Covid relief for people and employers affected by the pandemic.
The AG noted that while at least C$2.3 billion in overpayments have been recovered through voluntary repayments by this summer the federal government might run out of time to identify and recover the rest of the amount. The federal government legally has three years, starting from the time when the payment was made, to verify if it was proper.
However, Hogan said that while the federal government is legally bound to verify every payment if it does not choose to do so, it must explain the decision to the Canadian citizens, considering these payments went to low-income households and individuals.
Furthermore, the AGâs report also noted while the Trudeau governmentâs sourcing and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines was a success, the Public Health Agency of Canada ended up with a large surplus of doses.
Reportedly, by the end of May, earlier this year, the country had a little over 50 million doses which were deemed a surplus and were being offered to other countries. However, only 15.3 million could be donated while at least 13.6 million expired. Therefore, the audit recommends using this surplus in booster campaigns or donating them as most of them will expire by the end of this year.
(With inputs from agencies)
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