Federal government paid $20M for Ottawa company's COVID-19 test that flopped and was never delivered

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Federal government paid $20M for Ottawa company's COVID-19 test that flopped and was never delivered via nationalpost

Now, the Public Health Agency of Canada says it is writing off the amount as a loss pending the company’s liquidation, according to information recently tabled in the House of Commons and in the 2021 federal public accounts.

Seduced by the concept, the federal government as well as public health agencies and hospital networks in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec poured millions of dollars in orders for the product. For Health Canada, that amounted to $20 million following the signing of a March 2020 contract, it confirmed Tuesday.

“The Spartan COVID-19 system encountered numerous performance-related issues since the initial contract was signed in March 2020. The company was unable to fulfil the terms of the contract and did not deliver Health Canada-approved COVID-19 tests to the Government of Canada,” Health Canada spokeswoman Anna Maddison said in a statement.Article contentA representative of the company’s trustee Ernst & Young did not respond to emailed questions Tuesday.

The Spartan Bioscience loss is one of three COVID-19 advance payments worth a total of $105 million that PHAC wrote off in 2021.Photo by ERROL MCGIHON/Postmedia/File

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