Auditor General: It will take years to recoup CERB money taken by fraudsters

Auditor General Karen Hogan said on Thursday that the government failed to flag fraudulent CERB claims during the coronavirus pandemic and that it will take years for them to recoup associated losses, Global News reports.

The Canada Emergency Response Benefit, generally referred to as CERB, was implemented by the federal government during the summer of 2020 to help unemployed Canadians who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.

The program was costly, with many conservatives criticizing it for a lack of safeguards to prevent fraudsters from abusing the program.

She also audited the rollout of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), the most costly of the government's coronavirus response programs. The program subsidized companies over the course of the pandemic in order to prevent them from laying off workers. Many of these companies laid off their workers after they ceased receiving the subsidy, and some of the subsidies went to firms based in foreign countries, including a number of Chinese corporations.

Hogan discussed multiple ways in which the government could have stepped in to prevent fraudsters from taking CERB money. She also noted that the government allowed multiple companies with unpaid tax bills to receive CEWS benefits, arguing that this was preventable.

Hogan also said that in general, the Canadian government and the Public Health Agency of Canada was ill prepared to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, citing the dearth of the country's emergency preparedness over the past few years.