Whistleblower watchdog not releasing report

Whistleblower watchdog not releasing report

The federal whistleblower watchdog is refusing to publicly release a report that shows how many cases it bungled in its 3½ years in office, suggesting it was inappropriate to do so during a federal election campaign.

To help clear its image, the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner hired an independent firm, Deloitte, to review 221 complaints of wrongdoing it received and to determine how many were closed without cause and how many now require further investigation.

Interim commissioner Mario Dion hired the firm after Auditor-General Sheila Fraser slammed its former commissioner, Christiane Ouimet, for failing to investigate the overwhelming majority of cases that landed on her desk. Only seven of 228 cases were probed during Ouimet's tenure, which began in April 2007. Ouimet abruptly resigned in October--just before Fraser tabled her report--and received a $400,000 severance package from the Conservative government.