The provincial government of British Columbia has announced that it will lead an audit of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) following reports of several auto shops inflating their repair costs.
Attorney General David Eby said that the government has hired accounting firm PwC Canada to identify waste and discover ways to prevent fraud and overbilling at the public insurer.
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“ICBC will not be back on the road to financial sustainability or in a position to provide affordable rates to British Columbians without major changes at every level,” the attorney general said in a statement.
CBC reported that, on Wednesday, the union representing ICBC workers released a statement claiming that a number of auto body shops have been increasing the cost of their repairs under the repair express program – a program that allows customers to directly approach an auto shop for an estimate, which is then passed on to ICBC for approval.
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Annette Toth, vice-president of estimator advocacy group MoveUP, said that several of the union’s members have said that due to the high volume of claims, ICBC employees usually do not have a chance to review the costs.
“Our estimators are constantly trying to correct it,” Toth told CBC. “There’s not enough people to do the checks and make sure the body shops are being fully accountable.”
Some auto shops said that the rising costs of car parts is contributing to the increase in repair costs, adding that the claims of overbilling are overblown.
“They think we’re exaggerating the estimates, but we’re really not. We’re doing what the manufacturers are requiring us to do,” said Craftsman Collision COO Rick Hatswell.
The ICBC issued a response to the allegations, saying that it has not seen any evidence of fraud occurring at repair shops.
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