The City of Winnipeg received nearly 100 allegations of fraud and waste among its roughly 10,000 employees last year, which led one staff member to be fired and others to face penalties.
In 2024, the city’s fraud and waste hotline received 58 anonymous reports with 95 total allegations from council members, municipal staff and the public.
“We have literally thousands and thousands of employees … Having an anonymous way to report a very, very tiny number of bad apples within the organization through the city auditor’s department is, I think, an important thing … Making sure that we are responsible stewards of (taxpayer) resources is important,” said Coun. Jeff Browaty, city council’s finance chairman.
A city report notes one employee resigned during an investigation and one worker was terminated last year. Following other allegations, one employee was suspended for a day without pay and received a disciplinary letter, one employee was given a letter of reprimand and another worker received a “letter of direction related to break periods and was reminded about the importance of public perception.”
The report states some staff were also “re-educated” on the city’s credit card program, while others are now subject to random surprise worksite inspections.
“It shows the public that we are taking waste of time, waste of resources and theft seriously as an organization. And it also shows our employees that if you are going to consider trying to be wasteful that there are consequences,” said Browaty (North Kildonan).
Of the overall allegations, investigations found 12 to be substantiated and 34 to be unsubstantiated. The remainder lacked sufficient information, were referred to other city departments, didn’t reflect city business or are still being investigated.
The overall number of allegations dropped from 122 in 2021, 110 in 2022 and 106 in 2023 to 95 last year.
“What we have here are (waste reports) trending in the right direction,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.
Some serious allegations of wasted city time have triggered headlines in the past. In 2019, six employees of the city’s planning, property and development department were fired after being accused of devoting hours of their work days to personal chores and extended breaks.
The city began investigating how employees in the department spent their days in April of that year, after a Free Press report on a private surveillance operation. That private investigation claimed all but one of 17 monitored property and planning inspectors wasted hours of their work days.
Gillingham said he’s hopeful penalties that followed that issue now help prevent resources from being wasted.
“(The) large public investigation, a few years ago, where we had individuals working in the planning department who are no longer working (there) … I hope that (helps ensure employees) think twice about taking advantage of their employer, the City of Winnipeg,” he said.
The report offers little detail about each allegation, often not tying each specific offence to its consequences or listing the department affected employees worked in.
“We aren’t able to share further details on punishment or departments involved, as release of more specific information could lead to the identification of the employee(s) involved,” said spokesman Adam Campbell, in an email.
Browaty said the city also wants to avoid creating a poor impression of an entire department.
“You don’t want to paint a brush of what is potentially a huge division when there’s one bad actor (among) what could be hundreds of exceptional employees,” he said.
Browaty said investigations also weed out some incorrect allegations against municipal staff.
“They deserve a lunch break (like) anybody else,” he said.
The president of the city’s largest union said fraud and waste are rare, especially considering how closely many municipal staff are watched in their public-facing roles.
“Public-sector employees are more highly scrutinized than any other employees in any other sector … As soon as you’re a public-sector employee you’re put in a glass fish bowl and watched continuously,” said Gord Delbridge, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500. “I would say for the clear, vast majority of city workers, they are dedicated and devoted to the work that they do. If you look at the amount of complaints being so minimal, that certainly reflects (that).”
Delbridge urged the city to review its fraud and waste hotline to ensure investigation findings are fair.
“I think there needs to be, maybe, more oversight … on the reporting process and who’s going to be following up and dealing with these issues (to) make sure it’s done in a fair manner,” he said. “There needs to be accountability to the taxpayers and citizens of Winnipeg.”
A review should also explore the fact 34 of the allegations investigated last year were found to be unsubstantiated, Delbridge said.
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter
Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.
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