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.

Ex-integrity commissioner shows up, denies everything

Auditor’s report full of flaws, ex-integrity czar says

Christiane Ouimet says she always tried to do what is fair and right when she headed the office that champions federal whistleblowers, and a damning report by the Auditor-General that found otherwise was riddled with “flaws and erroneous facts.”

Ms. Ouimet, the former public-sector integrity commissioner who retired abruptly last fall as the audit was about to be released, appeared before the Commons public accounts committee on Thursday after three months of requests and summons. She was grateful, she said, for the opportunity to set the record straight.

... [The Auditor-General's] office has said it stands behind its report. The committee has agreed to call both the auditor and Ms. Ouimet to the next meeting to deal with the issues face to face.

Ms. Ouimet, who became the first-ever integrity commissioner in 2007, received a severance package worth $534,000 in addition to her normal pension benefits when she abruptly retired last fall.

Apparently Ms. Ouimet didn't explain why it took her three months to show up.

Ex-integrity office staffers bristle at Ouimet's 'Cadillac package'

Ex-integrity office staffers bristle at Ouimet's 'Cadillac package'

Former employees of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner's office, who took pension hits for quitting a caustic workplace, are outraged the federal government handed their disgraced boss a generous severance package to walk away quietly.

Christiane Ouimet received a separation allowance of $354,000, another $53,100 in lieu of foregone benefits, and an additional 28 weeks of severance pay worth about $137,000.

The departure agreement was signed just 10 days before it became public knowledge that Auditor General Sheila Fraser was conducting an audit of Ouimet’s turmoil-ridden office.

"This is unacceptable," said Normand Desjardins, former chief investigator with the commission. He says he quit after being screamed at by Ouimet in 2008.

"I retired before age 60. So I was penalized by roughly one-fifth on my pension," the 59-year-old said in an interview, branding Ouimet's recently disclosed payout a "golden retirement gift."

"It is very ironic. I get penalized and she got a half a million dollars to resign because she couldn't do her job."

... In her report, Fraser said staff complaints about Ouimet's behaviour were well founded. Employees had complained that Ouimet "yelled, swore and also berated, marginalized and intimidated certain PSIC employees and that she engaged in reprisal actions."

Between August 2007 and July 2009, average turnover at the office was over 50 per cent a year.

... The integrity commissioner's office was set up in 2007 to protect public servants who blow the whistle on wrongdoing within the federal government.

Fraser found that 228 allegations of public service wrongdoing or reprisals against whistleblowers were brought to the integrity commissioner’s office during Ouimet’s three-year tenure. Only seven investigations were launched and no findings of wrongdoing were issued.

... In one instance, Fraser said Ouimet retaliated against a former employee whom she believed had filed a complaint with the auditor general about her behaviour. In fact, the man, who'd resigned months earlier, had not yet filed a complaint and only did so later as a result of Ouimet's reprisals.

Fraser found Ouimet compiled 375 pages of information on the former employee in four binders; circulated at least 50 emails about him; disclosed personal information about him to his previous employer, senior government officials and a private security consultant; and tried to access his personnel file from his previous employer in a bid to launch a security investigation that targeted the man and three other former commission employees.

Disgraced bureaucrat getting $400,000 in severance

Disgraced bureaucrat getting $400,000 in severance

The federal government is paying $400,000 in severance to Christiane Ouimet, the disgraced former public-sector integrity commissioner who resigned in haste last fall, Postmedia News has learned. ...

[Auditor-General Sheila] Fraser's disparaging report slammed Ouimet for failing to properly do her job and found the office — which has an $11-million budget — investigated only five of 228 complaints filed during Ouimet's three-and-a-half-year tenure.

Ouimet also berated, intimidated and yelled and swore at her staff, the report said.

Following the criticism and backlash the report caused, the public accounts committee asked Ouimet to testify and to explain her actions.

Letter-writing, phoning and knocking on doors went unanswered for months before a lawyer for Ouimet, Ivan Whitehall, contacted the chair of the committee....