AG uncovers problems at Information office

AG uncovers problems at Information office

DEAN BEEBY

Canadian Press

January 27, 2008 at 5:08 PM EST

OTTAWA — A new investigation has slammed the Office of the Information Commissioner for financial irregularities, raising echoes of the privacy commissioner scandal of 2003 involving George Radwanski.

Auditor-General Sheila Fraser found evidence of favouritism, rule-breaking, overly generous payments to staff and dubious use of taxpayer dollars, most of it occurring before the current information commissioner arrived a year ago.

In a report dated Oct. 2 and obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, Ms. Fraser says the office disregarded government rules for hiring, promotion, travel, bonuses and gifts to staff.

The report found no abuses on the part of former commissioner John Reid, and there were no suggestions of fraud or criminal wrongdoing.

Ms. Fraser recommended, however, that the office revamp its policies to align them with Treasury Board rules.

The information commissioner is a federal ombudsman appointed for a seven-year term by cabinet to investigate complaints by Canadians who've been denied information requested under the Access to Information Act, sometimes taking their cases to court.

Ms. Fraser's report cites one case in which a senior executive who already met the bilingualism requirements for her position was nevertheless sent to France for a month of French-language training in July 2006.

Ruth McEwan, director-general of corporate services, paid for her own living expenses and flight to the course in Bordeaux, but taxpayers picked up the tuition ($757.61) and the flight back ($2,358.63). There was no indication she used any vacation time for the trip.

Ms. McEwan's position has since been eliminated, though she is still on the payroll awaiting an opening elsewhere in the civil service, said a spokeswoman for the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC).

The audit also found that the top four executives at the agency were awarded the highest possible annual bonuses, typically worth 3 per cent of salary, without proper justification.

And seven of the 10 people recruited in 2006-2007 were hired without advertising the positions and therefore without allowing competition for the jobs.

In another case, an outside contractor was appointed to a job in a section of the agency where he had previously been on an internal board that chose job candidates.

"We believe that he had an undue advantage that may have helped him obtain the position," says the audit report. "We also found that there was no evidence on file that he had the required education or security clearance required for the position."

An OIC spokeswoman said the person no longer works for the agency.

Other employees were reclassified into higher-paying positions with no evidence the salary increases were justified.

There were also contracting irregularities. "One contract was terminated but was then amended to pay for work that was no longer expected to be done," says the report.

And in June 2006, all 43 employees in the office were handed $100 gift certificates for merchandise at a local mall, the Rideau Centre, to mark public service week. "We are . . . concerned that Parliamentarians and Canadians may see this generous gift to all staff as an inappropriate uses of public funds," Ms. Fraser said.

Assistant commissioner Suzanne Legault said Robert Marleau, who arrived as the new commissioner on Feb. 1 last year, specifically asked Ms. Fraser to investigate human-resource issues because he was concerned about potential problems.

Mr. Reid, the previous commissioner, left office in September 2006 after his seven-year term and extensions lapsed. At least two of his senior executives departed soon after as Mr. Marleau reorganized the top layer of the agency.

Ms. Legault said the new executive team began working to clean up the hiring, promotion and bonus situation even before Ms. Fraser's report.

"It wasn't us guys, it was the previous guys," she said. "We've been extremely busy in fixing these things."

Ms. Legault added there is not enough documentation in the files to determine why many dubious decisions were made.

The 2003 scandal that centred on former privacy commissioner Radwanski also uncovered evidence that hiring, promotion and bonus rules had been broken.

But there was evidence of expense abuses as well, leading to a lengthy RCMP probe and the laying of fraud and breach-of-trust charges against Mr. Radwanski.

After he was fired in 2003, Mr. Marleau was brought in on an interim basis to help clean up the mess in the privacy office.

The OIC had itself been exempt from the Access to Information Act until last year, when the Federal Accountability Act extended freedom-of-information to more parliamentary bodies and Crown corporations.

 
 

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