2023-09-01 21:41:58
No less than 120 employees of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have lost their civil service jobs for fraudulently claiming the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), intended for people out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic .
• Read also: PCU: 600 officials of the Canada Revenue Agency under investigation
This is what the federal body announced Friday in a written statement to the media. The fate of 450 other federal officials, who are still under investigation by government departments, remains unresolved. More layoffs might come.
“All of this is extremely unfortunate,” reacted Marc Brière, president of the Union of Taxation Employees, affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). This organization represents 38,000 of the 60,000 civil servants of the Revenue Agency.
“That said, he continues, even if we have a duty to represent each of our members, there is little we can do for someone who has committed an illegal act, or contrary to the code of ethics. of the employer.”
80% were fired
Recall that on June 30, the CRA launched a review process to identify employees in its department who had requested the CERB without having the right to do so. In all, no less than 600 files – or 1% of its employees – had been identified as employees who were possibly guilty of such an act.
To date, a quarter (150) of files have been reviewed. Of the number, only 20% – or 30 of them – have been cleared. However, it was quite different for the 120 other employees, all fired from the federal public service.
Some, it is suggested, might also be the subject of complaints to the RCMP that might lead to criminal charges.
Silence at Revenue Canada
The CRA did not respond to our requests for clarification regarding, among other things, when and under what conditions these workers would be discharged (with or without a federal pension?). On Friday, union representatives maintained that they did not know.
It is also impossible to know how long it will take before the investigations into the contentious actions of the approximately 450 remaining employees are completed. It is only at the end of these that we will have the full picture of the frauds committed by Revenue Canada employees during the pandemic.
Through its spokesperson, Nina Yussoupova, the agency says: “The Agency takes all forms of wrongdoing very seriously and is strongly committed to protecting the integrity of the tax and benefit systems of the Canada and to demonstrate to Canadians that it is a fair and trustworthy organization. When misconduct is detected, we ensure that appropriate action is taken to address it.
The CERB offered benefits of $ 500 per week to people who lost their job in 2020. The CRA specifies that any employee who applied for the CERB “unjustifiably” will have to repay the amounts received, if this has not already been done.
–With the contribution of QMI Agency.
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