2021–22 Departmental Results Report

Core responsibilities

Public Sector disclosures of wrongdoing and complaints of reprisal

Description

The Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada contributes to strengthening accountability and increases oversight of government operations by providing public servants and members of the public with an independent and confidential process for making disclosures of wrongdoing in, or relating to, the federal public sector. The Office receives and investigates these disclosures and reports founded cases of wrongdoing to Parliament and makes recommendations to chief executives on corrective measures. The Office also provides a mechanism for public servants and former public servants for making complaints of reprisal. It receives and investigates these complaints of reprisals and can refer cases to the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal.

Results Highlights

The Office supported and delivered on the Commissioner’s mandate by dealing with disclosures of wrongdoing and reprisal complaints, engaging in outreach activities and providing funds for legal assistance.

In 2021–22, the Office received 142 disclosures of wrongdoing continuing a trend of high numbers of disclosures, with more than 140 disclosures received each year for the past five years. In addition, the Office received 47 reprisal complaints this year, which is comparable to the 46 complaints received a year before. The table below, published in our 2021–22 Annual Report tabled in Parliament, provides a summary of the Office’s overall operational activities for 2021–22.

Operational activities in 2021–22

Summary of New Activities

Overall Disclosure Activities

Overall Reprisal Activities

Funds for Legal Assistance

The Office administers a contributions program established under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act to provide discretionary funding up to $3,000 for independent legal advice to individuals involved in disclosures of wrongdoing or reprisal complaints. In 2021–22, the Office received 60 requests for funding for legal advice under the Act and 24 of those requests were granted.

Safe Return to the Workplace

In the context the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office’s physical workplace was closed and employees were set up to work from home. Subsequently, the Office developed and implemented a plan for the safe return to the workplace. In 2021–22, the Office continued to implement the plan in adapting to the changing environment and ensuring the health and safety of all employees.

Results

In its 2021–22 Departmental Plan, the Office focused on two specific areas to achieve the expected results and targets related to its core responsibility. This section describes how the Office performed against each result.

Result 1: Public sector disclosures of wrongdoing and complaints of reprisal are dealt with in a timely and effective manner.

A timely and effective process to deal with disclosures of wrongdoing and complaints of reprisal in the federal public sector is essential to the success of the Office. It contributes to our vision of a trusted organization, as well as respecting our values and meeting our service standards.

In 2021–22, the Office leveraged available technologies and tools to allow the delivery of the mandate in a timely and effective manner while ensuring the safety of those involved in our processes. The Office, since the spring of 2020, has been adapting to the evolution of the pandemic and has developed and implemented a plan for the safe return to the workplace. As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, the Office began its transition to a hybrid work model. This has enabled the Office to continue to deliver its mandate even as the uncertainty related to the pandemic remains.

The Office continued the long-term implementation of the recommendations following an evaluation of the Disclosure and Reprisal Management Program carried out between December 2019 and March 2020. In particular, as outlined in its Management Response to said evaluation, the Office:

• continued to encourage and to support the full and effective delegation of tasks;
• continued to build on the current model of having two investigators in each investigation and leveraging the capacity of team leads;
• continued to develop and support the utilization of the existing comprehensive suite of tools;
• continued its efforts to support the retention of staff by ensuring a transparent, collegial, collaborative and supportive work environment with a focus on sharing information, training and education; and
• continued to improve the review process for investigation reports by leveraging the knowledge and experience of team leads.

The planned result to implement a new case management system was not fully completed in 2021–22. The delay was a result of ongoing assessments of operational requirements including security. This activity will be completed in 2022–23.

Result 2: Public servants and members of the public are aware of the Office and have access to information to make an informed decision about disclosures of wrongdoing and/or complaints of reprisal.

Building awareness of the federal public sector whistleblowing regime and understanding of the Office’s roles and responsibilities contributes to the Office’s success. The Office provides presentations to federal organizations on request and participates in events targeted to public servants, where possible.

In 2021–22, the Office participated in presentations to federal departments, meetings with provincial and territorial counterparts, and conferences. Among other outreach activities, the Office participated in the Professional Development Week of the Financial Management Institute, attended by nearly 3,000 participants; the annual Public Interest Disclosure conference with territorial and provincial counterparts; as well as providing tailored presentations to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the Office of the Auditor General. The Commissioner also responded to various invitations to speak with university students on the subject of whistleblowing and ethics.

In 2011 and 2015, the Office led focus group testing with employees and executives in order to better understand public servants’ views about the federal whistleblowing regime. In 2021–22, the Office completed another cycle of testing on perceptions about whistleblowing and the fear of reprisal. The report is accessible on the Office’s website, and it highlights some key concerns and challenges faced by public servants when it comes to blowing the whistle. Most notably, the report demonstrates that the fear of reprisal is still very much at the forefront of employees' considerations when deciding whether to report wrongdoing, and a culture shift across the federal public sector is needed in order to create a safe environment for those who blow the whistle. These results will help to inform future outreach and engagement initiatives, as well as the development of informational and educational materials for use online and in person.

Experimentation

As a micro organization with limited financial and human resources, the Office did not undertake any experimentation in 2021–22.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Office’s Sustainable Development Strategy and actions supported the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals by promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns. Although the impact may be at a small scale, the Office continued the practices to reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. The Office also promoted public procurement practices that are sustainable.

Information on the Office’s contribution toward the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals is available in the supplementary information tables under the Greening Government commitments.

Results achieved

The following table shows, for public sector disclosures of wrongdoing and complaints of reprisal, the results achieved, the performance indicators, the targets and the target dates for 2021–22, and the actual results for the three most recent fiscal years for which actual results are available.

Notes

1. Challenges related to the context of conducting investigations during the COVID-19 pandemic affected our capacity to meet all service standards targets as planned in the 2020–21 and 2021–22 Departmental Plans.
2. An intake checklist was not completed in the required five days in one instance.
3. Results not available, as the indicator was established in 2020–21.
4. The planned face-to-face outreach events did not take place due to public health restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of attendees at outreach events refers to virtual events participants.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Office’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

The following table shows, for public sector disclosures of wrongdoing and complaints of reprisal, budgetary spending for 2021–22, as well as actual spending for that year.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Office’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Human resources (full-time equivalents – FTEs)

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the Office needed to fulfill this core responsibility for 2021–22.

Financial, human resources and performance information for the Office’s Program Inventory is available in GC InfoBase.

Internal services

Description

Internal services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal services refer to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support program delivery in the organization, regardless of the internal services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

• acquisition management services
• communication services
• financial management services
• human resource management services
• information management services
• information technology services
• legal services
• material management services
• management and oversight services
• real property management services

Results

In 2021–22 as the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, employees continued to work remotely.

As such, the Office purchased work from home equipment for new employees that were hired in 2021–22.

A major investment was the deployment of Office 365, which includes Microsoft Teams. This tool has proven to be very valuable for communication and remote work between team members.

In addition, the Office continued to invest in its staff by supporting employee training.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

The following table shows, for internal services, budgetary spending for 2021–22, as well as spending for that year.

Human resources (full-time equivalents – FTEs)

The following table shows, in full-time equivalents, the human resources the department needed to carry out its internal services for 2021–22.

Spending

Spending 2019–20 to 2024–25

The following graph presents actuals and planned spending (voted and statutory) over time.

There are very slight variances in amounts spent year over year due to the fact that the Office is a micro organization with a specific mandate delivered by a single program. The main reason for the variance between planned and actual spending is related to employee turnover and the timing of new hires.

Budgetary performance summary for core responsibilities and internal services (dollars)

The “Budgetary performance summary for core responsibilities and internal services” table presents the budgetary financial resources allocated for the Office’s core responsibilities and for internal services.

The Office expects its long-term spending to increase mainly due to inflation and increases in salaries and IT costs.

Human resources

The “Human resources summary for core responsibilities and internal services” table presents the full-time equivalents allocated to each of the Office’s core responsibilities and to internal services.

Human resources summary for core responsibilities and internal services (full-time equivalents – FTEs)

The Office had planned to grow to a total of 36 employees in 2021–22. However, due to staff turnover, workforce growth was slower than anticipated, reaching only a total of 34 full-time equivalents.

Expenditures by vote

For information on the Office’s organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2021.

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of the Office’s spending with Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in GC InfoBase.

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

The Office’s financial statements audited for the year ended March 31, 2022, are available on the Office’s website.

Financial statement highlights

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada audits our financial statements annually. Expenses in the Financial Statements are prepared on an accrual basis, while figures in other previous sections were prepared on an expenditures basis. The difference between the figures in the different sections is the result of accrual entries, such as the recognition of services provided without charge by other government departments, the acquisition of tangible capital assets and related amortization expenses, and accrued liability adjustments.

Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2022 (dollars)

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited) as of March 31, 2022 (dollars)

The following paragraphs explains the difference in expenses, net liabilities and net financial assets over the previous year.

From 2020–21 to 2021–22, actual expenses decreased by $191,155. This is largely attributable to a reduction in Professional Services expenses in 2021–22, and out-of-court settlements of claims paid in 2020–21 at $75,000.

The decrease in net liabilities of $126,944 is due mainly to: 1) timing of payments to suppliers at year-end, and 2) the lifting of the moratorium of automatic cash-out of employee leave in excess of collective-agreement leave carry-over provisions.

The decrease in financial assets is largely attributable to timing of payment and collection, which resulted in a reduction in the amounts due from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, as well as the amounts of salaries receivable from other government departments at year-end. In addition, there was a reduction in the GST receivable account and salary overpayments and advances to employees.

The decrease in non-financial assets is insignificant. Non-financial assets in 2021–22 are comparable to those in 2020–21.

The 2021–22 planned results information is provided in the Office’s Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and Notes 2021–22.

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister: The Honourable Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board

Institutional head: Joe Friday, Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

Ministerial portfolio: Treasury Board Secretariat

Enabling instrument: Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act

Year of incorporation / commencement: 2007

Other: The Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada supports the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, who is an independent Agent of Parliament.

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

“Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do” is available the Office’s website.

Operating context

Information on the operating context is available on the Office’s website.

Reporting framework

The Office’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2021–22 are shown below.