The ACT Government is conducting a “routine audit” of their ChooseCBR voucher scheme after nearly $400,000 worth of discounts was claimed in the first 48 hours of the program.

On Friday 11 June, the scheme was suspended for seven days after customers and businesses were plagued with technical difficulties implementing the vouchers at the point of sale and even just accessing the website.

An ACT Government spokesperson told Canberra Daily an audit into the use of funds through ChooseCBR, an “inherent part of the scheme design”, was initiated last week.

“The audit process has not indicated any misuse at this point,” they said.

“ACT Government is also working with more than 80 businesses to reimburse vouchers that they honoured but were not able to redeem.”

ACT opposition business spokesperson Leanne Castley MLA this morning expressed scepticism around the legitimacy of the $400,000 claimed in two days.

“Serious questions remain for the Minister including how the government is monitoring the scheme to ensure people do the right thing,” she said.

“I raised this concern with the Minister’s office before the scheme began; how can the government guarantee vouchers will not be misused, and the money is going where it is meant to go?”

Ms Castley said the suspension of the scheme was frustrating for both businesses and consumers.

“It is simply not fair and unacceptable for business owners, staff and customers to be put in this position.”

$389,950 worth of vouchers were claimed in the first two days of ChooseCBR after it went live on Wednesday 9 June, which far exceeded the $30,000 a day claimed in the December 2020 trial.

After being taken down last week, work has been conducted on the ChooseCBR system to improve its capacity to deal with “the very high volume of customer and business activity simultaneously”.

“A solution continues to be implemented and is being tested over the coming days,” the spokesperson said. “We are continuing to work towards Friday and will provide advice ahead of time.”