arrivecan: $59.5 million for an app

 

arrivecan: $59.5 million for an app. where was the accountability?

Remember ArriveCAN?

That little government app that became a very big Canadian public spending scandal?

I certainly haven't forgotten it.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians were required to use ArriveCAN to submit health and travel information when entering the country.

It was supposed to make things easier.

Instead, it became an example of what happens when government technology projects go wrong, public money disappears into layers of contracting, and nobody seems to know exactly what happened.

Let's revisit the facts.

$59.5 MILLION.

That was the Auditor General of Canada's estimated cost of ArriveCAN.

And here's the extraordinary part: the Auditor General couldn't establish the precise cost because the Canada Border Services Agency had such poor financial records.

This wasn't just a question of an expensive app.

The February 2024 Auditor General's report found:

• Little documentation explaining how GC Strategies received its initial non-competitive contract.
• GC Strategies was involved in developing requirements for a later competitive contract, potentially giving it an advantage.
• Contracts were missing clear deliverables and required qualifications.
• Invoices were routinely approved despite missing details about the work performed.
• 18% of the invoices tested lacked sufficient information to establish whether the expenses even related to ArriveCAN or another IT project.
• The app went through 177 versions between April 2020 and October 2022.
• One update mistakenly instructed approximately 10,000 travellers to quarantine.

GC Strategies alone was attributed approximately $19.1 million in ArriveCAN costs.

These aren't rumours circulating on social media. These are findings from Canada's Auditor General.

And what about the people who had to use it?

For travellers, it wasn't some abstract technology experiment. It affected real people trying to cross a border, visit family, travel for work and get on with their lives.

A government application should make life easier, not create unnecessary obstacles.

Here's what bothers me.

We keep being sold the next big technological revolution.

Dot-com. Apps. Artificial intelligence.

Every time, there's hype, investment, promises and people making enormous amounts of money.

But who asks the practical questions?

Does it work?

Is it secure?

Is it accessible?

Is it worth what we're paying?

Who benefits?

And, most importantly, who is accountable when it fails?

I studied web design and technology at Emily Carr. I remember being encouraged to imagine what was possible and build something new. I did. But the technology I created wasn't secure or usable in the real world.

There's a difference between a wonderful idea and something that actually works.

Government should understand that distinction before spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

We need innovation, absolutely. But we also need common sense, transparency and accountability.

Canadians work hard for their money. Public money is not an unlimited investment fund for poorly managed technology experiments.

And we shouldn't have to wait for an Auditor General's report to find out what happened to it.

Perhaps before governments race to embrace the next big thing, they should demonstrate that they've learned something from the last one.

Remember ArriveCAN.

Because we certainly should.

#ArriveCAN #TaxpayerAccountability #GovernmentSpending #PublicMoney #AuditorGeneral #GovernmentTransparency #Technology #DigitalAccountability #Canada #WhereIsTheAccountability