Public servant named in ArriveCan controversy denies responsibility for contracting issues

A public servant who has been named multiple times in parliamentary hearings on the ArriveCan controversy is denying responsibility for the project's contracting issues.

Diane Daly, an employee with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), appeared Wednesday before the House public accounts committee, which has been investigating ArriveCan's soaring costs.

Daly told the committee that she was seconded to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) while ArriveCan was being developed. She said she had no authority to make decisions about the contracting process and insisted that her role was largely an administrative one.

«Any and all decisions were not mine to make. I had no … right to make decisions,» she said.

Daly also claimed that she was concerned about providing testimony and feared she could lose her job by telling MPs the truth.

The ArriveCan app was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic as a tool for the government to collect and track the health information of those arriving in Canada.

Earlier this year, the auditor general reported a number of contracting irregularities with the app and said the high cost of the project — estimated at roughly $60 million — was due in part to the government's over-reliance on outside contractors.

Daly has been named multiple times in previous committee hearings. She was mentioned by Kristian Firth, one of the main contractors who worked on ArriveCan, when he appeared in front of the entire House in April.

The auditor general's report said that Firth's company, GC Strategies, helped to develop requirements for a $25 million ArriveCan contract that ultimately was awarded to GC Strategies.

Firth disagreed with the suggestion that the contract requirements favoured his company. He