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OTTAWA – The partners in embattled consulting firm GC Strategies, who had a central role in the development of the ArriveCan app, will testify before MPs beginning on Wednesday.
Kristian Firth, one partner in the company, will testify Wednesday for three hours and his business partner Darren Anthony will testify on Thursday.
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The pair testified last fall when concerns about the ArriveCan app first arose, but initially declined invitations to appear again in February. The government operations committee passed a motion in February calling for both men to appear, and allowing for the House of Commons Sergeant at Arms to take them into custody to ensure their appearance, if necessary.
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But the pair are currently set to appear voluntarily.
Auditor General Karen Hogan’s report on the ArriveCan app revealed that the federal government spent nearly $60 million on the application, though she said the accounting on the project was so sloppy she couldn’t be sure.
She found that GC Strategies received $19.1 million of that money, including in many cases through sole-sourced contracts. The company is a two-man operation that hires IT consultants to do work for the government. Since that report was released, the company has been banned from participating in future federal contracts.
When he testified in the fall, Firth said their job is to put together the team to do the work.
‘We are responsible for bringing in individuals and building teams that the federal government would not have access to, as it does not have them on staff. It also does not have recruitment capabilities,” he said.
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The company has received more than $100 million from the federal government in total for several contracts.
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The ArriveCan app, which was made mandatory for arriving travellers during the pandemic, collected vaccination records and contact tracing information, which was then passed along to provincial authorities to check on travellers that should be in quarantine.
Hogan found that app had malfunctioned at one point sending 10,000 people in quarantine who did not have to be there.
Firth told MPs they didn’t oversee the project, but simply brought together the talent, which he said were the right people for the job.
“We are, however, very proud of the team we gave the Government of Canada, whom they managed and gave direction to throughout the project. They never missed a deadline, and they completed all their tasks and deliverables.”
National Post
rtumilty@postmedia.com
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