Auditor General Finds Canadian Citizenship Being Obtained Fraudulently

The Canadian auditor-general has highlighted serious flaws in the process of acquiring Canadian citizenship, suggesting that immigration authorities routinely failed to adequately detect and prevent fraud. The audit examined more than 100,000 adult citizenship applications submitted during the period July 2014 and October 2015, under the former Conservative government.

Key Failures of Immigration Department:

• Failed to adequately detect and prevent fraud in the Citizenship Program.
• Did not have a systematic method of identifying and documenting fraud risks.
• Important controls designed to help citizenship officers identify and act on fraud risks were not consistently applied.