Antonio Utano, left, and Cameron MacDonald were both suspended without pay following the preliminary findings of a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) internal investigation into the ArriveCan contracts. Both men say the report contains only allegations, with no supporting evidence.
Two senior federal officials suspended without pay following allegations of misconduct in the awarding of government contracts told MPs Thursday they're being scapegoated by current and former executives of the Canada Border Services Agency .Antonio Utano, left, and Cameron MacDonald were both suspended without pay following the preliminary findings of a Canada Border Services Agency internal investigation into the ArriveCan contracts.
"The reality is, this document is nothing more than a collection of baseless accusations unsupported by any corroborating evidence, accusations of wrongdoing supported by cherry-picked emails and calendar entries. It should be called the preliminary statement of falsehoods," MacDonald said. Utano, now a director-general at the Canada Revenue Agency, and Macdonald, now an assistant deputy minister at Health Canada, told MPs on the government operations and estimates committee that when the allegations in the statement were shared with their new employers, they were both suspended without pay.Auditor General Karen Hogan reported earlier this month that the government overpaid for the ArriveCan app and the CBSA's handling of the file was woefully inadequate.
Utano said that he and MacDonald were responsible only for the initial "execution and technical delivery" of the ArriveCan app. "The app could never have cost $80,000," he said. "The $80,000 was to build a digital prototype that moved paper … to an online form that could be used on a mobile phone. It was used to show that you could digitize something."MacDonald said that the rising cost of the app can be attributed in part to other departments who argued that since their work was related to ArriveCan, they should also be able to carry out activities under the app's funding envelope.
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