The Contribution and Revenue Management System (GCRA) of the Canada Border Services Agency (ASFC) will be the subject of an audit by the general auditor. The tool, which has a cost exceeding 300 million, accumulates postponement and calculation errors.
What to know
- The office of the auditor general will open a survey on a digital tool from the Canada Border Services Agency (ASFC).
- The tool, the contributions management and revenue management system (GCRA), aims to modernize the collection of rights and taxes on commercial goods.
- The project has a cost exceeding 300 million, in addition to accumulating postponement and calculation errors.
- Several organizations and internal auditors have sounded the alarm about the defective portal.
- The first Vice-President of the ASFC believes that the “breakage” and “oversights” are inevitable when you develop a system of magnitude of the GCRA.
The audit on the Contribution and Revenue Management System (GCRA) has not started, and no calendar has been established for the moment, the office of the auditor general of Canada said in an email.
The press Reported in June that the digital tool had already cost taxpayers more than half a billion, while authorized expenses reached 706.5 million, against an announced budget of 408 million in 2019. The implementation of the final phase of the project was postponed once from May 13 to next October.
Read our survey on the GCRA portal
The initiative, in boxes since 2010, aims to modernize the collection of rights and taxes on commercial goods.
The tool promises annual gains currently evaluated at some 40 billion, by reducing “the missed opportunities to apply taxes and rights” to nearly 800 billion imported goods each year, according to the ASFC.
The multinational Deloitte obtained by tender most of the contracts granted by the ASFC for the GCRA, in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018. On its own, the most recent contract, which stretches until 2026, displays a value of 322 million, according to documents requested under the parliamentary privilege and obtained by The press.
“Unresolved faults”
In an overwhelming memoir given to parliamentarians on April 8 and went unnoticed, 22 organizations notably emphasize that “the calculations of rights and taxes continue to be wrong”. Among the signatories: the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters (IE Canada), the Canadian Customs Broker Company, the Canadian Independent Company Federation and the United States Chamber of Commerce.
The ASFC led three series of controlled tests of the GCRA system, said Kim Campbell, ex-president of IE Canada, in parliamentary committee, last March.
“Each series of tests was extremely frustrating, because the process and test scripts were full of errors and sowed confusion. The same thing was repeated at each test phase. Elements that were to be corrected were not, “she said.
Members of the Canadian Customs Broker Society (SCCD) have raised “concerns about insufficient tests and unresolved flaws before GCRA is in service” in a dissertation deposited at the end of March.
IE Canada has asked the Standing International Trade Commerce Committee to mandate the VG so that it produces an examination report on the “management and execution of the project, cost exceedes and supplier management”.
Echoes ofArriveCAN
The GCRA, “it’s a bit of a mixture between ArriveCAN et Phénix “Consives Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, blocist deputy and vice-president of the Standing International Trade Committee, referring to the two federal digital projects weighed down by scandals. The parliamentarian sent a letter to the general auditor asking him to look into the file.
Ted Gallivan, first vice-president of the ASFC, said that it was “unthinkable” that a system of the scope of the GCRA is free from “omissile” or “breakage”, in an interview with The press By videoconference.
“I accept that there will be problems because it is a system with millions of transactions. My role is to have a team that documents the problems, then that solves them in a timely manner, “he said.
Already in 2021, an internal verification pointed out “significant delays in the design of the solution” which “had an impact on the essential integration activities which must be carried out, including the solving interface problems and the realization of acceptance tests by the user”.
