Departmental Performance 2007-2011

Topics: 
PSDPA, Analysis, Internal disclosure
Rating: 
0

Federal government whistleblowers can disclose alleged wrongdoing within their department or they can go directly to the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner's office. The following is a summary of annual statistics reported by the departments.

Executive Summary

  • The departmental system for disclosure of wrongdoing is little used: each year less than one employee in a thousand makes a disclosure although 10% or more of employees have likely witnessed misconduct that they consider serious.¹
  • Some large employers stand out as having ineffective implementation. For example, four departments,² between them employing 140,000 public servants, have yet to find a single case of wrongoing in four years. We estimate that these departments have spent more than $300 billion in that time, yet they have been unable to find a cent misused or misappropriated.
  • Departments that uncover wrongdoing tend to be secretive about the details: the required published reports often contain little or no information beyond the fact that some type of misconduct was uncovered. In some cases we were unable to find the legally-required reports on departmental websites.
  • With a few exceptions, where information is provided, the wrongdoing reported usually seems relatively minor and involves low-level employees.

¹ Estimate based on in-depth government workplace surveys conducted in the USA and Australia.
² Canada Post, Canada Revenue Agency, Human Resources and Skills Development, and Correctional Service.

The System

Each of the 154 organizations subject to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) is required to make arrangements for handling disclosures of wrongdoing and to identify a Senior Officer for Disclosure who is responsible for this process. This is a separate system from the handling of disclosures by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner's office (PSIC).

Employees are not obliged to use these internal channels: they may opt to approach the Integrity Commissioner instead. These officers handle only disclosures of wrongdoing: only PSIC can handle complaints of reprisal.

Treasury Board – which is responsible for oversight of this departmental system under sections 2, 4, 5, 10(4), 25, 38.1, 52, 54 and 54.3 of the Act – is also required under section 38.1(2) to publish annual statistics on the activity and performance of Senior Officers. These are summarized below for the past four fiscal years (2007-2011).

Overall system performance

These numbers reflect the main steps in the disclosure process: from the first inquiry (typically by someone considering making a disclosure) through to a finding of wrongdoing (which must be reported on the department's website). These are totals that include all departments.

Over the past four years 1003 inquires were received, 919 led to a formal disclosure and 333 investigations were started. 131 of these led to some kind of corrective action and 29 resulted in a finding of wrongdoing.

Senior Officer Disclosures 2007-2010

Steps 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 Totals
1. General inquiry received 259 186 281 277 1003
2. Disclosure received 234 181 213 291 919
3. Investigation begun 87 60 75 111 333
4. Corrective action taken 26 38 36 31 131
5. Finding of wrongdoing 7 6 7 9 29

Trends

The chart below shows activity by year from 2007 to 2011. There is no clear trend visible. Note that the uptick in disclosures and investigations in 2011 is entirely due to a surge of activity by Canada Post.

Activity during last year

Of the 154 organizations subject to the PSDPA, 119 (77%) received no disclosures. Seven (5%) received disclosures that went no further – they carried out no investigations. Twelve (8%) got as far as conducting investigations but found no problems. Another nine (6%) conducted investigations and found problems requiring corrective action, but no wrongdoing. Seven organizations (4%) found wrongdoing.

Departmental performance

Organizations demonstrating some results last year

Of the 154 active organizations subject to the Act only seven have been successful in identifying any case of wrongdoing during the past year. These departments collectively employ about 60,000 staff, or about 15% of all public servants.

Organization Inquiries Disclosures Investigations begun Corrective action taken Wrongdoing reported
Canada Border Services Agency 70 62 4 4 2
Statistics Canada 4 2 2 2 2
Public Works and Government Services 30 7 7 1 1
National Defence 22 13 2 1 1
National Gallery of Canada 0 9 9 1 1
Public Health Agency of Canada 0 2 0 1 1
National Battlefields Commission 0 1 1 1 1

The departmental reports detailing each case of founded wrongdoing can be seen here: Departmental Reports of Founded Wrongdoing...

The departments typically provide limited information about founded cases of wrongdoing, and many seem to be relatively minor infractions involving low-level staff.

Organizations showing few results

70% of public service employees work for one of the 139 departments that have never found any wrongdoing in the past four years. Four of the largest departments, which between them employ 35% of all public servants, have not found a single case of wrongdoing between them in four years.

Organization Inquiries Disclosures Investigations begun Corrective action taken Wrongdoing reported
Canada Post Corporation 0 80 32 0 0
Canada Revenue Agency 36 9 1 0 0
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada 83 32 3 3 0
Correctional Service Canada 17 39 3 3 0

Status of organizations in 2010-2011 report

Status Description Number
Active Reported activity related to the PSDPA 47
Active Reported no activity 67
Active No senior officer, per 10(4) of PSDPA 36
Inactive Designated as inactive 4

Reference