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Integrity commissioner fails test of credibility
Allan Cutler
Last week, Christine Ouimet, the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner and the senior bureaucrat tasked with implementing the government's Accountability Act, resigned. We applaud her decision, as she had once again failed miserably in the test of credibility when she delivered her third annual report.
The report, almost a carbon copy of two previous reports, is devoid of any real substance in terms either efforts or results. For whistleblowers, whom the Integrity Office pledges to protect, this report came as a real disappointment but not a surprise.
With an annual budget of $6.5 million and more than 20 full-time staff reporting, it received 208 inquiries but did not uncover a single case of wrongdoing. Out of the 50 cases closed, the office uncovered no valid whistleblowers.
Is the federal bureaucracy, governed by the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA), such a shining example of accountability and transparency? The whistleblowers who have contacted Canadians for Accountability certainly don't think so. With no financial resources and only volunteers, we have received some 70 complaints against wrongdoings in the federal government and have been able to verify about half of them as valid.
Since the law came into force in early 2007, whistleblowers, whose lives are typically devastated by reprisals and who contacted Integrity Commissioner's office, quickly discovered that promised reprisal protection did not exist.
In answer to complaints about the lack of results, the report made revealing excuses: "We are not a representative of nor advocate for any individual; rather, we are an advocate for the public interest" and in "maintaining confidence in public institutions", it asserts.
This alone is a betrayal of whistleblowers.
But with the Office of the Auditor General going in to investigate, and reports that 19 of her 22 staff allegedly left in the past year, it's clear that something appears amiss at the Integrity Commissioner's office. This is reinforced by the timing of Ms. Oiumet's sudden retirement.
It is clear now that this first experiment at a whistleblower protection regime in the federal public service has been an abysmal failure. But, acknowledging this, how do we move forward?
To begin with, the new Commissioner must be selected using a more transparent process, and must be required to have a more appropriate background for the job. Such an individual should not be from existing cadre of senior bureaucrats, for, as we have now seen, their loyalties are not directed to the people they should be protecting - whistleblowers and the public - but rather to their colleagues and themselves.
In addition, there must be changes to the PSDPA to eliminate loopholes, expand the mandate of the Commissioner, increase compensation for whistleblowers and penalties for those making reprisals, and allow for more proactive investigations.
Without these changes, things will not improve. This would be tragic for both whistleblowers and the public interest. More lives would be ruined and it would only be a matter of time before the next scandal. And how can Canadians continue to have confidence in public institutions when the very organization mandated to protect whistleblowers refuses to back them or investigate the reported wrongdoing? When it is itself under investigation by the Auditor General?
Is it any wonder that Canadians become disillusioned about the public service as a whole?
We at Canadians for Accountability think that if the government is sincere about accountability and transparency, then it must pursue real action and real results, not endless meetings and information sessions. Whistleblowers deserve a commissioner who delivers real protection. Until they get one, the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner's office will continue to be viewed by federal public servants as a paper tiger designed to create the illusion of protection when there is none, and by Canadians as a waste of public resources.
Published in The Hill Times October 25, 2010
Created: October 26, 2010
Last updated: October 26, 2010
