Ottawa outsourced delivery of business pandemic aid for 'unknown' amount

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According to an access-to-information request, Ottawa paid Accenture Inc. approximately $61 million to deliver pandemic relief to businesses.

The parliamentary committee is investigating the sharp growth in the number and value of contracts to consulting firms under the Liberal government. On February 13, the committee expanded their probe to cover six firms, including Accenture, after initially examining spending directed just toward McKinsey & Company.

NDP MP Gord Johns, who introduced the motion to the operations committee to broaden the study of consulting contracts, said learning about Accenture's involvement with CEBA is "alarming."

"We assumed it was running through the public service," he said. "We didn't know this until now."

According to recent federal government data, McKinsey has received $116.8 million in contracts from Ottawa since 2015.

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The federal database lists over $67 million in contracts given to Accenture during the pandemic, including $18 million to help deliver individual benefits. However, the database failed to mention the contract value to administer interest-free and "partly forgivable" business loans under the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) program.

On April 9, 2020, Ottawa announced the creation of CEBA. They sent over $49 billion to nearly 900,000 businesses at over $60,000 each.

Export Development Canada (EDC) handled CEBA, a Crown corporation whose central role is aiding finance deals for Canadian businesses abroad. But an access-to-information request by The Globe and Mail uncovered the EDC outsourced most of the work on CEBA to Accenture. 

Briefing materials unveiled that up to August 13, 2021, Accenture delivered $61.2 million of the $78.4 million in aid through CEBA. All costs afterward remain redacted.

EDC redacted a cost breakdown for how much the firm charged under an exemption for protecting the confidential information of third parties. Neither EDC nor Accenture would admit the total cost of the contract.

According to the federal public works department, the controversial US multinational consulting firm McKinsey & Company has received $104.6 million in contracts from the Trudeau Liberals since 2015.https://t.co/hSloX0Bvfs

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The House committee probing the six firms, including Accenture, said their government contracts have ballooned from $50 million a year a decade ago to half a billion dollars now.

Johns said increased reliance on outsourcing means higher costs to taxpayers and a diminished public service capacity to deliver programs. He expressed concerns it could become a self-reinforcing cycle.

"I get it," he said. "There are times when we don't have internal capacity. The government needs to turn to external help. But this should be a last resort, not the government's first call."

The crown corporation outsourced CEBA to Accenture to lend money to businesses they considered "too risky to support" that fell outside its core expertise as an export credit agency.

Amid growing public scrutiny on the billions spent annually on outside help, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) says federal outsourcing could set another record this year at $21.4 billion.https://t.co/La88QmttZD

— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) March 5, 2023

"Accenture also supports the day-to-day operations of CEBA and the ongoing buildout of collections infrastructure to ensure the government is set up for the future collection of the non-forgivable portion of CEBA loans upon loan maturity," said EDC spokesperson Shelley MacLean in a statement.

Accenture's duties included:

• Website building.
• Running a call centre for applicants.
• Bringing financial institutions on board.
• Handling investigations and collecting data.

The firm has worked with more than 230 financial institutions and deployed more than 50 call-centre agents at the program's height. It claimed it had CEBA operational within two weeks.