Ottawa’s pandemic small business loan program lacked checks and balances: AG

The auditor general says the small business loan program the federal government rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t managed in a cost-effective way.

Auditor General Karen Hogan says the Canada Emergency Business Account program wasn’t managed with “due regard for value for money.”

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The program lent 898,000 small businesses $49.1 billion to help cover expenses such as rent and payroll during the pandemic.

The report estimates $3.5 billion of that went to recipients that were ineligible.

The auditor general says Export Development Canada, which was responsible for the program, acted quickly to get the loans out.

But the report says the Crown corporation relied on sole-source contracts and a single vendor without strong checks and balances.