The federal government’s pandemic business loans program lacked the oversight to ensure “value for money,” says a report by Canada’s auditor general, which found that the agency in charge of the program gave out loans to ineligible recipients in some cases.
Export Development Canada (EDC) gave out $3.5 billion in loans to ineligible recipients as part of the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) program, says the report from Auditor General Karen Hogan released on Dec. 2.
Hogan said while EDC acted “quickly” to establish the program, which provided $49.1 billion in loans to help almost 900,000 small businesses during pandemic closures, the program was improperly managed and in total 9 percent of loans were given to ineligible businesses….