Report 2012-2013

Wrongdoing Case

A disclosure received under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA) made three allegations that a manager breached the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)’s Standards of Professional Conduct by repeatedly:

• failing to avoid a conflict of interest with an offender;
• providing benefits and personal favours to an offender and his friend; and
• encouraging, counselling and/or directing one or more employees, volunteers and service providers to commit wrongdoing as defined under the PSDPA.

Actions taken

CSC took immediate action and launched an investigation.  During the investigation, five additional allegations were made which were directly related to the initial three allegations.  All eight allegations were linked to the manager.  The investigation found wrongdoing in five of the allegations and they met the criteria for wrongdoing as defined by Section 8 of the PSDPA: 

• failing to avoid a conflict of interest with an offender;
• providing an offender with payments for a good;
• directing a CSC employee to facilitate three-way telephone calls for an offender who was not under CSC jurisdiction;
• directing CSC employees to provide a benefit to an offender and/or his friend; and
• encouraging a service provider to commit wrongdoing by assisting in obtaining  bail for an offender.

The investigation also revealed repeated breaches of policies and various instances of poor management judgement.

Recommendations

The investigation report included nine recommendations in the areas of disciplinary action, administrative oversight, and operational integrity at the site where the wrongdoing occurred, as well as measures to restore the workplace environment and well-being of the employees.

Corrective measures

All nine recommendations were accepted and have been implemented.