Ontario asks OPP to look into OSAP payments at private career colleges

Ontario has asked provincial police to look into student financial assistance payments at private career colleges after auditors identified “serious concerns” about possible criminal activity and “egregious” use of public money, the government said Tuesday.

Colleges and Universities Minister Nolan Quinn said the ministry launched targeted inspections of career colleges last year in response to growing concerns about Ontario Student Assistance Program usage and asked KPMG in August to begin an audit.

“While that work is ongoing, preliminary findings have identified serious concerns about the integrity of the OSAP system in the private post-secondary sector,” he wrote in a statement.

“These include common ownership, the involvement of immigration services firms and co-location between private career colleges and immigration recruitment or immigration services firms, inadequate student validation and verification of course enrolment and outcomes, and unusually high concentrations of OSAP applications submitted from the same geographic locations.”