Evidence of meeting #122 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was documents.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you. I'll take that question as rhetorical.
Ms. Yip, you have the floor for six minutes, please.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Ossowski, for coming in as a witness today.
Do you want to add anything more to the statement you just gave?
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
What role did you play in the development and oversight of the ArriveCAN app during your tenure as the president of the CBSA?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
Obviously, as the president, I was running the agency during the pandemic. We had a request from the Public Health Agency to develop the app, because of the paper process that was in place at the time. I asked my officials to look into it. They came up with the idea, and they went ahead and procured the necessary resources to deploy it.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
What role did you play in terms of oversight of the ArriveCAN app?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
Certainly, as the accounting officer at the time, I was responsible for making sure there was a system of controls in place. Those obviously are delegated down into the organization, and specific responsibility was given to the CFO.
There are standard operating procedures. There was training before delegations were provided. There were managers' individual responsibilities to validate the work that was happening with their employees, and then there were sample audits and invoice checks that were done as part of the regular financial management process.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Did you have any involvement in the procurement process, specifically when it came to selecting contractors?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
I was not involved in any aspect of the vendor selection process or any aspects of the contracts whatsoever.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
What role does the president of the CBSA generally play in the agency's procurement process?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
Generally, I would only be involved in a procurement process if it required a Treasury Board submission or something that required ministerial approval.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Could you please explain to us why it was necessary for you to be rehired for the one day on a casual basis in order to prepare for your committee appearance?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
Well, you can check my emails on this, but I did not necessarily want to be paid for this. I simply wanted access to my computer emails and calendars so that I could prepare for the committee.
As the committee is aware, relying on my memory in the first instance when I came to the committee didn't work too well for me, so getting some facts and some clarity of my records was important for subsequent testimonies.
10:20 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Do you know why they offered you this one-day contract of $500?
10:25 a.m.
As an Individual
In order for someone to have access to the government account and check for their information, they need to be on strength, so I was offered a position so that I could access my emails and calendar and [Technical difficulty—Editor].
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Was this in order to prepare for your appearance at the OGGO committee on January 18 of this year?
10:25 a.m.
As an Individual
Yes.
Just to clarify, when I say “personal expenses”, I mean on my personal well-being because of the time I spent preparing. There were no expenses submitted to the agency.
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
You mentioned something about emails that you were looking for to support your appearance.