Defence Department Suspends Employee Who Received Millions in Contracts From Own Department, ArriveCan Work

Employee Suspended by Defence Department for Receiving Millions in Contracts from Own Department, ArriveCan Employment on Hold

March 1, 2024 TruthUSA

The CEO of Dalian, a company that received $7.9 million for its work on the ArriveCan app, has been suspended from his role at the Department of National Defence (DND) a day after Ottawa announced a review of its program supporting indigenous contractors.

“Due to the serious nature of the concerns raised, DND is launching an internal investigation into the matter. The individual has been suspended while this investigation is underway. We are in the process of suspending contracts with Dalian,” a DND spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

David Yeo, the CEO of Dalian Enterprises, is employed as a member of the Materiel group on the civilian side of DND, according to CTV News. During his employment at the agency, his firm was also contracted to work on the ArriveCan app used to check the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers crossing into Canada.

That application has been at the centre of a political firestorm in recent months due to its exorbitant costs, totaling an estimated $59.5 million. The auditor general’s recently released report on ArriveCan found that proper contracting and management practices around the app at several government agencies were not followed, key records were inexplicably missing, and there was little documentation to show why the IT firm GC Strategies was chosen to work on the project and paid $19.1 million.

Dalian and another company Coradix were also awarded contracts to work on ArriveCan, and have received a total of $400 million in government contracts over the last decade, according to the Globe and Mail.

According to an Inquiry of Ministry tabled by government on Jan. 29, DND has signed seven contracts with Dalian since 2019 totaling $1.9 million. One of those contracts, valued at $1.3 million, involved providing a senior information technology security design specialist to the Materiel Group, which Mr. Yeo was employed with.

Dalian has not responded to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

On Feb. 28, Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu announced the federal government was launching a review of how it awards contracts to indigenous-owned businesses.