Three more cases of fraudulent overbilling, Ottawa says

By Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press on November 15, 2024.

The federal government has referred three more cases of fraudulent overbilling in its procurement system to the RCMP. The RCMP logo is seen outside Royal Canadian Mounted Police "E" Division Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on Friday April 13, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA – The federal government has referred three more cases of fraudulent overbilling in its procurement system to the RCMP.

In July, a former federal consultant was charged with fraud for overbilling the government by $250,000.

Previously in March, Ottawa asked the RCMP to investigate at least $5 million in suspected fraud by IT sub-contractors who were billing multiple departments for the same work.

Public Services and Procurement Canada says it has now referred a total of seven cases to the RCMP.

The department says it has asked the companies involved to repay the money and is “actively” working on recovering the funds.

It did not specify how much money was involved in the new cases and says it can’t provide any further details due to the ongoing investigations and court cases.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2024.