Alberta AG reports cite child care overpayments, millions in ineligible pandemic payments

Yahoo

3 days ago

Alberta's auditor general has found that parents may have overpaid for child care due to a lack of provincial oversight of its subsidy program, and, that a pandemic assistance program for small businesses may have distributed more than $155 million to ineligible applicants.
Auditor General Doug Wylie separately released on Thursday a performance audit of the Child Care Subsidy and Grants Program, and an assessment of how the province had implemented its Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant Program.
The child care audit reported on how $1.1 billion in public funding was managed within the program during 2023-2024.
The audit found that the department didn't consistently ensure claims from operators were supported or that funding from subsidies and grants were used to reduce parents fees and pay educators.
'There is a risk of overpayment by the department and a risk that parents are overpaying for child care and educators are being under compensated,' Wylie stated in a news release.
'Albertans should have confidence that these funds are achieving the program's purpose — to reduce child care costs for families and support educators.'
Fourteen of 25 operators sampled in a single month had at least one discrepancy, and three had more significant issues including one instance where an overstated claim led to an overpayment by the department of more than $26,000 for that month.
Wylie also noted the program had been administered by three different ministries in as many years, leading to 'significant delays' in completing his report.
Postmedia has sought comment from the office of Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.
In a statement, Opposition children and family services critic Diana Batten accused the government of short-changing parents and also noted the province's April cancellation of its income-tested subsidy that some parents say has sent child care costs skyrocketing.
'Smith and her uncaring government have delivered a double hit to parents struggling to afford child care, making it even more expensive. It's a failure to live up to their responsibility, improper management of public funds, and it's just cruel.'
Pandemic program overpaid $158M: Auditor general
A second report from Wylie's office follows-up on a 2022 audit of the provincial program designed to help businesses affected by pandemic public health measures. The auditor general then recommended that the government take steps to verify the eligibility of those who received funding.
Thursday's report estimates that following that verification process by the government an estimated $158 million in ineligible program payments had been made. The department projects the value of ineligible payments was significantly lower, at between $52.5 million and $105 million.
'Program effectiveness should not only be measured by getting money out the door quickly, but also by whether the program achieves its intended results,' Wylie stated in a news release.
He noted the department had focused on high-risk eligibility verifications but believed further post-payment verifications of other applications would produce diminishing returns.
'Without completing that analysis, the department would not be able to conclude on the eligibility of the majority of program applications,' he wrote in recommending further processes to verify eligibility.
The report states the ministry of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration is in the process of recovering $7.6 million of payments to identified ineligible, overpaid, and non-responder recipients, and that $1.4 million has been recovered so far.
Postmedia has sought comment from the office of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration Minister Joseph Schow.
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