…& that’s two years ago, to the day almost, and we still don’t know the final total I’m sure…
I seem to remember something from a couple years ago about investigating this being an undue burden on the investigators at Revenue Canada, & that was before it came out that a bunch of people at Revenue Canada where involved in defrauding….Revenue Canada.
Access-to-information files said the Canada Revenue Agency had “no records” of who mismanaged the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“We have no records pertaining to this request,” wrote the agency’s access-to-information office.
Blacklock’s had sought the names of those responsible for mismanaging the CERB program that paid out
Billions of dollars in fradulent claims.
Revenue commissioner Bob Hamilton testified it was a “decision by the government,”
but would not name names.
“We determined there was an increase in fraud because there were greater incentives to defraud,” said Hamilton, testifying on Feb. 2, 2023, before the House of Commons public accounts committee.
“We implemented a number of fraud detection measures. It is, nevertheless, true the number of instances of fraud increased.”
Official estimates had ineligible claimants get $7.96 billion in relief cheques with audits scheduled to continue into 2025.
“It’s very difficult to know what will be left at the end of the day,” said Hamilton.
In the early days of the pandemic on March 25, 2020, Parliament passed the CERB Act to pay $2,000 a month to jobless tax filers facing eviction or foreclosure. While the program was originally budgeted for $24 billion, its final costs were $81.6 billion.
CRA was assigned processing claims, including verification that applicants were tax filers, but no upfront verification occurred. Access-to-information records showed payments of $636 million were claimed by children as young as 15.
Hamilton said “an unidentified government official” told CRA to process claims with
no questions asked.
CRA had 'no records' of who mismanaged CERB program during pandemic, Blacklock's Reporter says
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