Our Office developed a list of fifty questions that a newly appointed deputy head should ask early on his or her mandate, which touch four important elements of an organization’s existence – structure, operations, reporting and audit and evaluation.
At this time, only parent Crown corporations are covered under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act. Some of the sources of vulnerability of Crown corporations are described in the second chapter of our 2008-09 Annual Report. One of their main sources of risk seems to lie in governance.
The Office developed a short list of questions to which it would seek to have answered if it were called in to investigate an alleged wrongdoing in a Crown corporation:
Proceedings under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (the Act) are meant to be as informal as possible. To help you better understand your rights and obligations under the Act, the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner (the Commissioner) can pay up to $1,500, or $3,000 if there are exceptional circumstances, for you to obtain legal advice from a lawyer of your choice. Under some circumstances, legal advice may be provided by a lawyer employed in the Commissioner’s Office.
All disclosures to our Office are treated fairly and equally. Our staff supports the Commissioner by following a standard processes.
All disclosures are received and reviewed by us. You may be contacted for clarification or additional information required to thoroughly review the disclosure. A detailed admissibility report is then submitted to the Commissioner, with a recommendation to either proceed or to take no further action.Sometimes, we will recommend another, more appropriate mechanism to address the issue.
Many things go through your mind when deciding whether to make a protected disclosure of wrongdoing. One of the most common concerns is the fear of reprisals — if someone in your organization finds out that you made a disclosure, your work life could be negatively affected.
This Office exists, in large part, to help ensure that does not happen. We are obligated and fully committed to protecting your identity, to the extent possible.
