Public Services and Procurement Canada is taking action to combat fraud in the Government of Canada
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has a framework of laws, regulations, policies, programs and services in place to prevent, detect and respond to potential wrongdoing, in order to safeguard the integrity of the federal procurement system. When we detect issues or receive allegations that the Government of Canada is being defrauded either in a specific contract or on a broader scale, we respond.
Today, PSPC announced that it has detected several fraudulent billing schemes undertaken by subcontractors (individuals) working on federal contracts awarded to prime contractors (suppliers). These individuals submitted timesheets and billed multiple departments under separate contracts. This was detected as a result of the department's ongoing efforts to strengthen its approach to detecting fraudulent activities and other types of wrongdoing.
As part of today's announcement, investigations have found that 3 information technology subcontractors fraudulently billed on contract work across a number of separate federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations between 2018 and 2022. These illegitimate payments are estimated to total nearly $5 million. Today's announcement is the first wave of fraudulent billing cases the department has identified, with more expected to be announced in the coming months. Consistent with Budget 2018 commitment to strengthen our approach to addressing corporate wrongdoing, these cases are the result of departmental investigatory efforts supported by data analytics.
