Question Period Note: PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF ESDC PROGRAMS

What is ESDC doing to ensure the proactively monitor and detect unusual or suspicious activity of departmental systems and ensure the integrity of benefit programs and services delivered to Canadians?

ESDC/Service Canada has robust controls and mechanisms in place that actively monitor and identify potential cases of error, fraud or abuse in our systems.

Employees of ESDC not respecting the ESDC Code of Conduct (Code) may face administrative and/or disciplinary measures, up to and including termination of employment.

During the investigation, these 49 employees were found to have breached the Code, and as a result, had their reliability status revoked and their employment terminated with ESDC/Service Canada.

These measures support the sound stewardship of public funds.
Protecting the integrity of programs, their use and departmental information is of the utmost importance and requires that ESDC maintain rigorous security practices, including taking proactive measures against the risks that employees of the ministry may pose. That being said, employees who were deemed ineligible and took advantage of CERB were terminated because they broke the employer's trust in them and no longer met their terms of employment.

ESDC is committed to upholding the public’s confidence in the integrity of the federal public sector, which is essential to Canada’s well-being.

Employees abide by the ESDC Code of Conduct, which is a condition of employment and outlines the requirements of departmental employees to act professionally and uphold the core public sector values in their daily work.

The Department actively promotes a strong ethical culture by providing all employees with resources, tools, training, communications, and support on values and ethics.

ESDC takes the findings of its internal investigation very seriously and has taken action to recover ineligible payments. These employees will be required to pay back the funds, just as any other Canadian found to be ineligible to receive the emergency benefits.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada remained committed to ensuring that Canadians be provided with the financial supports and services they needed as quickly as possible to get through this difficult time.

We know that in times of crisis, the risk of fraud is heightened. ESDC has robust data analytics capabilities that have been actively monitoring and identifying cases of potential fraud in our systems since the launch of the CERB.

ESDC implemented several initiatives and measures to review the situation and identify irregularities.

ESDC conducted an administrative investigation into a total of 160 departmental employees due to potential misrepresentation identified.  Among the completed investigations, 49 employees were terminated due to the revocation of their security status. The other cases were administratively cancelled or had their security status maintained and due diligence continues.

As part of the Department's internal integrity measures, it was determined that 49 ESDC employees had claimed the CERB payment.

As a result, those employees had their security status revoked and their employment terminated.