Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said in a statement Thursday that the government needs to work with First Nations to fix the issues with the procurement program.

An audit of a program that favours Indigenous businesses for federal contracts found widespread problems related to a lack of oversight measures for preventing fraud and misuse.

The review of the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business specifically found weaknesses related to a provision that allows non-Indigenous companies to win federal contracts under the program, provided that they partner in a joint venture with an Indigenous company.

Auditors examined the program in part by looking at 50 random companies registered to participate, in order to confirm that proper verification proce

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