The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has fired 20 employees while investigating about 600 others for applying for COVID-19 financial aid benefits while working for the agency.
CRA spokesperson Sylvie Branch confirmed on June 30 that the agency is investigating 600 of its workers for “inappropriately” claiming the $2,000-per-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) while they were employed with the CRA, reported the National Post.
Ms. Branch also confirmed that the agency has terminated the employment of 20 of those workers, while the number is likely to increase as the internal review continues.
The CERB was rolled out in March 2020 to provide financial relief to those who lost their sources of income due to reasons related to the COVID-19 outbreak. People who were employed but not receiving income because of disruptions to their work due to COVID-19 were also eligible for CERB, but they had to be earning less than $1,000 per month when submitting their claims….