Toronto City Hall Oct 26, 2010. (Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail)Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail
One city of Toronto employee falsified documents to grant improper subsidies to a co-worker's spouse, another used official letterhead to solicit donations for a fake Christmas charity, and a whole group used city equipment to create and post "inappropriate videos" on social media sites during office hours.
Those are just three of the transgressions Toronto Auditor-General Jeffrey Griffiths unearthed in a pair of new reports that also warn the municipal government isn't adequately protecting whistleblowers, including one who was improperly fired for making a complaint to Mr. Griffiths's office.
An investigation concluded the whistleblower was fired as punishment for speaking up but that he or she was later rehired, Mr. Griffiths writes in a report slated to go before the city's audit committee Feb. 22.
"What's in place needs to be strengthened so when a whistleblower comes forward they are not intimidated and most importantly they are not fired," said Adrienne Batra, Mayor Rob Ford's press secretary. "That is something the mayor and his executive want to see happen as soon as possible."
The city's fraud and waste hotline received 573 complaints in 2010, down 15 per cent from the 677 complaints it received in 2009. Of the 573 complaints, more than 56 per cent included two or more allegations, for approximately 900 allegations in total.
Some 50 of the complaints in 2010 were substantiated in whole or in part, while a conclusion is pending in another 54 cases.
The rest were either unfounded or did not require a conclusion.
Mr. Griffiths identified $85,790 in actual losses from the fraud and waste he uncovered, along with $21,228 in "at-risk" money that could have been lost had the fraud continued.
So far, the city has recovered $2,267 of the improperly pocketed dough.
"Everyone's saying about the gravy, gravy, gravy. Well, there's one small example of the gravy," said Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor's older brother. "We're going to have the auditor-general pretty busy over the next little while."
But Shelley Carroll, the former budget chief and a new member of the audit committee, pointed out that the waste Mr. Griffiths and his team found in 2010 is minuscule when compared to the $530-million shortfall projected for 2012 - a figure that assumes council will pass a 2-per-cent property tax hike, a 10-cent transit-fare increase and keep the land-transfer tax the mayor has promised to scrap.
"It's not evidence that one day we'll wake up and what it takes to run a city this size will suddenly be half of what it was," Ms. Carroll said.
Mr. Griffiths's report - which also highlights cases of employees claiming fake sick time, falsifying overtime slips and improperly hiring family members - includes scant information on how misbehaving employees were punished.
The employee who altered documents to help a co-worker's spouse has been disciplined and "is no longer with the city." Toronto police have been contacted about the case.
The staff members who abused social media were "disciplined" but remain on the payroll.
The employee who invented a fake Christmas charity has returned the ill-gotten donations and "attended rehabilitation for substance abuse."