Client: Government of Canada Department

Problem: In early 2020, the Government of Canada released an enormous amount of funding to help different organizations and communities combat COVID-19.  They did this, in some cases, using their traditional transfer payment mechanisms and the associated terms and conditions.  To ensure that eligible costs and any interpretation of the normal terms and conditions would be understood appropriately, one Department required a detailed review of the specific flexibilities afforded its recipients for the emergency funding, so that the changes to the terms and conditions and/or their interpretations would be clearly documented.  

Solution: Nīewe Consulting (formerly Baiame) conducted a thorough documentation review and interviewed key stakeholders across every program within the department to create a robust picture of the flexibilities in place during the emergency funding period. The results were a detailed pictorial of the funding, as well as a document specifying the guidance given per program and per set of terms and conditions.

Impact: The document was used to brief senior management on the overall picture of how funding was allocated to combat COVID-19, as well as to provide guidance to future auditors in conducting audits of the funding recipients, to ensure that money was not deemed recoverable where eligible costs had changed for the considered period.