Five years after requirements became law, has Treasury Board ensured that all federal government institutions provide legally-required whistleblower protection?

Conservatives could have avoided more than $500,000 payoff to former Integrity Commissioner if they had waited for Auditor General's report and Deloitte report

Monday, January 23, 2011

OTTAWA— Last June, the Globe and Mail reported that for CSIS, the Canadian Security Establishment and the Canadian Forces “five years after Parliament ordered federal departments to protect whistle-blowers... soldiers and spies still lack crucial protections that would allow them to highlight wrongdoing without risk to their careers.”

This problem likely extends much farther than these three government institutions as there is some clear evidence that, five years after the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) became law, it is not being complied with or enforced effectively.

Has the Treasury Board's Chief Human Resources Officer Daphne Meredith (whose office is responsible for implementation of the PSDPA) ensured through audits and inspections that all of the 183 federal government institutions subject to the PSDPA have in place a whistleblower protection system with a designated senior official and effective channels for internal reporting of suspected wrongdoing?

The federal Conservatives are currently drafting their international Open Government Partnership (OGP) Action Plan to present at the OGP meeting in Brazil in April, and the PSDPA must also be reviewed by Parliament this spring.  The question is whether the Conservatives will, finally, keep the promises they made in 2006 to change the law to ensure effective whistleblower protection, and an open and ethical federal government.

An analysis by the Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR) of statistics provided in Treasury Board reports indicates that:

• Of the 183 organizations subject to the Act, only 12 have found any wrongdoing during the past three years;
• Six of the largest federal government institutions have not found a single case of wrongdoing between them in three years;
• Canada Post has reported no activity– not even an inquiry from one of its 60,000 employees – for three consecutive years, and;
• About 80% of public servants work for departments that have not reported any activity (inquiries, disclosures, investigations or findings of wrongdoing) in three years.

"The fact that almost all federal government institutions have not found any wrongdoing in the past three years raises serious questions about whether they have effective whistleblower protection systems as required by the law," said David Hutton, Executive Director of FAIR. "The lack disclosures of wrongdoing from the largest federal government institutions is especially a red flag, similar to the record of disgraced former Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet who found zero cases of wrongdoing during her three years of tenure despite receiving hundreds of disclosure complaints."

"There is some clear evidence that the federal Conservatives have delayed effective whistleblower protection for five years after the law was passed, and the government must come clean about just how many institutions and agencies have failed to comply with the law, and how many are covering up wrongdoing," said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch and Chairperson of the Open Government Coalition.  "The Conservatives must also, finally, keep the promises they made in 2006 by making key changes to strengthen the whistleblower protection system to make it effective."

Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch and Chairperson of the Open Government Coalition
Tel: (613) 241-5179

David Hutton, Executive Director, Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform
Tel: (613) 567-1511

To see FAIR’s analysis, click here.

To see the list of federal Senior Officers for disclosure of wrongdoing, click here.

To see the December 2010 report on former disgraced Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet by Auditor General Sheila Fraser, click here.

To see the list of needed reforms to the PSDPA, click here.

NOTE: FAIR and Democracy Watch call on federal parties to penalize Ouimet for her misconduct and claw back her obscene, undeserved $500,000 severance payoff (NOTE: The alliance has demanded that the payoff be cancelled and has also requested that the Auditor General audit the payoff and all other similar recent payoffs by the federal government).