Opposition MPs want the identities of those who approved wrongly allocated pandemic contracts, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. The firm’s CEO previously sat on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Board of Trustees with Chrystia Freeland.

In 2020, Parliament tabled the Canada Emergency Business Account to provide entrepreneurs with interest-free loans to mitigate business closures. Accenture PLC oversaw operations for Export Development Canada (EDC) at a $209 million cost.

Mismanagement led to ineligible applicants receiving $3.5 billion in loans through this program, up to $60,000 each, reported Blacklock’s. 

Mismanagement of the Canada Emergency Business Account led to ineligible businesses receiving $3.5 billion in pandemic loans. Accenture’s CEO sat on the WEF’s Board of Trustees alongside Freeland.https://t.co/oX94KrkDt4

— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) December 3, 2024

Mairead Lavery, CEO of the EDC, said the agency was attempting to recover the funds, contrary to recent statements from vice-president Todd Winterhalt. “In practical terms, implementing it would be challenging and may also come at significant cost,” Winterhalt told the National Post.

“We have established a clear process to collect on all loans including amounts owing from ineligible recipients,” testified Lavery, a process which she said is "underway." 

EDC, a Crown bank, gave out $49.1 billion in taxpayer loans to some 898,000 small businesses. All loans are due by 2026. 

The bank managed the program at the discretion of Minister Freeland though it lacked the means to oversee it effectively, MPs learned. “For context, in a typical year Export Development Canada extends about 300 loans,” Lavery told the Commons public accounts committee.

Pay attention to 2015. These are consulting contracts given to Accenture.

Thank you to @MBrant75 for the chart. https://t.co/khfFtq7VkI pic.twitter.com/QjoljCvGKC

— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) December 3, 2024

“You expressed to the Department of Finance that you did not have the capacity to administer the program, correct?” asked Conservative MP Kelly McCauley. “We discussed the operational risks,” replied CEO Lavery.

“Who was that with the Department of Finance please?” asked McCauley. “This was with finance officials below the deputy minister level,” replied Lavery, who agreed Wednesday to submit a list of names to the committee.

“I believe they are hiding something,” the MP told committee members. “It’s very clear we have got a lot of issues,” he said.

I wonder if there’s a connection between this and the hundreds of millions of dollars being shovelled out of Canadian taxpayers’ wallets by Freeland in consulting contracts to Accenture and McKinsey? https://t.co/khfFtq8tag

— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) December 4, 2024

Moreover, Conservative MPs are calling on the Finance officials responsible to be fired for the costly mistakes. “Who should be fired for wasting $3.5 billion of taxpayers’ money?” MP Brad Vis asked.

“Is it you or anyone else at Export Development Canada who should be held responsible for wasting this much money?” he asked. “This was a complex program,” replied Lavery.

“Who should be fired for making such a big mistake?” he repeated. “This program was built in an unprecedented time of the pandemic,” Lavery deflected.

"That sounds like fraud," Tory MP Kelly McCauley said after hearing the Auditor General speak on Accenture basically awarding a contract to itself:
"EDC and Finance and Global Affairs had identified the need to move to a competitive process because they were concerned about the… pic.twitter.com/jVvCumBJn6

— Noé Chartier (@NChartierET) December 2, 2024

Auditor General Karen Hogan, another critic, publicly ostracized the Department of Finance and Foreign Affairs for not monitoring the bank’s work. “The program was not managed with due regard for value for money,” she told the public accounts committee.

The audit report, Canada Emergency Business Account, identified billing discrepancies, where call centre agents charged 14 hours daily for $23.2 million, nearly ten-times more than the original budget.

“This program could have been delivered for less money,” Hogan concluded. EDC did not identify these discrepancies at the time of payment.

The “insider” is Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who sits on the World Economic Forum’s Board of Trustees along with the CEO of Accenture, Julie Sweet.

Accenture contracts awarded by the federal government have roughly increased by over 4000% since 2017.

Questions? https://t.co/6VjhutQZld pic.twitter.com/JXglIn5KUL

— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) June 29, 2023

MP McCauley also criticized EDC for throwing away taxpayer funds through non-competitive contracts. “I would expect the public service not to give a contract to Accenture and tell them … set your own prices and decide how much taxpayers would pay,” he said.

The non-competitive contracts awarded to Accenture represented 92% of their $342 million in federal contracts concerning the CEBA program, the audit found. Accenture CEO, Julie Sweet, who sat on the WEF Board of Trustees alongside Freeland, received an uptick in federal contracts, from two in 2017 to 95 in 2021.

Finance Minister Freeland has not addressed the audit as of writing. “This report fails to properly acknowledge the program was designed and delivered during a global pandemic,” she wrote in a prior statement.

“Covid is not an excuse for ignoring the rules,” MP McCauley added.

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