The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced late Friday night that about 600 of its employees are currently under investigation for allegedly receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) without being entitled to it during the pandemic Globe & Mail.
The CRA said 20 of the affected employees were no longer with the organization. The CRA was one of the main organizations responsible for administering the CERB, a program that provided $500 to workers who were unemployed due to COVID-19.
The agency said an extensive internal review process was underway to identify any individuals who improperly received CERB payments while employed by the CRA.
“We are currently investigating a very limited number of our employees, approximately 600 employees, or less than 1% of the total CRA workforce. Being a current CRA employee does not necessarily mean that an individual was not eligible for the CERB,” the CRA said.
“An internal review process to examine each individual case is warranted as CRA employs people with different job profiles. [certaines ont par exemple] fixed-term contracts [ou] Students; and therefore individuals may have been eligible for CERB at the time it was available,” the agency added.
The CRA has advised that if misconduct is confirmed, disciplinary action will be taken against employees.