The federal government has launched a compliance audit to determine whether the Ottawa consulting company mismanages its Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), and Global News learns that officials from the Canadian Public Health Agency surprised the company's office in mid-June.
A five-month global news survey of the VISP program led to an audit by PHAC staff and a visit to the Ottawa office in downtown, confirming the work of a consulting company managing thousands of vaccine injury claims filed by Canadians.
Canadian Public Health Agency staff visited the Oxalo/VISP office in downtown Ottawa on June 17th. That was after Global began asking questions about program management from a consultant hired, and sent a letter to request comment.
Oxaro's five-year financing agreement with PHAC will be renewed next year, and the audit will make it more likely that the contract extension will be short or not renewed at all if the company does not pass the compliance audit. The government has also been able to strengthen Oxalo staffing and training requirements.
A confidential source said PHAC officials will continue to visit Oxalo's VISP office.
Global News has agreed not to identify sources as they are not permitted to publicly talk about visits to the site or compliance audits, but is familiar with the details about them.
PHAC spokesman Mark Johnson confirmed the surprises from agency staff during his June 17 visit to the Oxalo office.
“PHAC has begun the process of compliance auditing for VISPs managed by Oxaro,” he added.
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Oxalo did not respond to email requests for comments regarding audits and site visits.
The Vaccine Injury Support Program was created early in the Covid-19 pandemic.
This effort was designed to support and compensate those who have been seriously and permanently injured by a Canadian certified vaccine after December 8, 2020.
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The federal government submitted proposals to administer the program in early 2021, inviting businesses and nonprofits to compete for a five-year contribution agreement to fund the effort.
Oxalo vowed that there will be “people, processes, tools” to implement initiatives in “industry best practices.” PHAC then chose Oxalo to manage the program.
However, a global news survey of the program, which includes more than 30 interviews with current and former Oxalo employees, injured claimants and their attorneys, revealed complaints that VISP failed to fulfill its promise of “fair and timely” access to financial support.
Part 1 of the survey revealed this.
Oxaro Inc. receives $50 million from taxpayers. $33.7 million was spent on administrative costs, but Canadians injured in vaccine shots during the Covid-19 pandemic have only received $16.9 million. Over 3,000 applications have been submitted – 1,700 of them are still waiting to determine their claim. Some injured people faced the revolving door of an unreachable VISP case manager and said they filed for survival by fundraising online.
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Part 2 of the survey revealed the claim that Oxalo was not equipped to fully provide the program's mission and raised questions as to why PHAC chose this company over the others.
Global News also revealed internal documents that suggest that VISP is lacking due to insufficient planning from the start.
Global News also heard descriptions of workplaces that lack gravity in programs intended to support serious injuries and chronic illnesses. Some workers said distractions in the office have improved over the last few months, highlighting that they have done their best with the resources they were given.
One worker added:
“I don't think they (the injured claimant) were simply paper names and nothing more.”
Ottawa consulting firm Oxaro Inc. was hired in 2021 to administer the federal government's vaccine injury assistance program.
Global News
In his previous response to Global News, Oxalo said: “VISP is a new and demand-based program with an unknown and variable number of applications and appeals submitted by claimants.”
“The program's processes, procedures and staffing have been adapted to face challenges associated with receiving significantly more applications than originally planned,” Oxaro added. “Oxalo and PHAC have worked closely together to assess how programs can remain agile to handle workloads at hand, while respecting budget constraints.”
The company declined to comment on the statements made by the former workers.
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