Staffing irregularities in the public service on the rise, report says

The Public Service Commission is an independent government agency mandated to oversee the integrity of the staffing system and the political impartiality of the federal public service.

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Published Dec 21, 2023 • Last updated 53 minutes ago • 6 minute read

The Public Service Commission of Canada is located at 22 Eddy St. in Gatineau. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

Irregularities within the Government of Canada’s staffing system are on the rise, according to a new report that found most cases in the past year were due to error, omission or improper conduct in external appointments. According to a spokesperson, one single appointment process was behind a large number of the investigated cases.

The Public Service Commission of Canada’s 2022-23 annual report shared the latest data on staffing levels and hiring trends within the federal public service.

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On top of reporting that the population of the public service continued to rise, that the time to hire new staff remained slow and that more members of employment equity groups were being hired within the Federal Student Work Experience Program, the document shared that there were more founded investigation cases for staffing irregularities in the past year than in the previous four years.

The PSC is an independent government agency mandated to oversee the integrity of the staffing system and the political impartiality of the federal public service. In addition to conducting audits, studies and surveys, it is also charged with investigating allegations of fraud and improper political activities as well as concerns related to appointment processes.

While the agency has sole authority to investigate fraud and improper political activity, said Kimberley Jessome, acting vice-president in PSC’s oversight and investigations sector, it can only investigate error, omission or improper conduct for external appointments. Deputy heads, she said, have the authority to investigate error, omission, or improper conduct in internal processes.

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PSC investigations are limited to departments and agencies under the Public Service Employment Act.

In 2022-23, the PSC received 695 requests for investigations related to staffing, with 275 falling under its mandate.

Former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick said the 420 requests that did not fall under the PSC mandate could have gone to another commissioner’s office, such as the integrity or lobbying commissioner.

“That doesn’t sound like a lot if you compare it to the whole public service,” Wernick said. “It’s a lot for them. It’s a lot more than they did last year.”

Former Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick. Photo by Wayne Cuddington /Postmedia

Of 275 accepted requests, 22 were made by deputy heads to conduct investigations on their behalf relating to errors, omissions or improper conduct in internal appointment processes, 24 were requests related to improper political activities of public servants and 71 requests were related to fraud.

The highest number of requests, 158, related to errors, omissions or improper conduct or to merit not being met in external appointment processes when candidates were considered for positions whether or not they were already employed in the federal public service.

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The PSC did not receive any investigation requests related to political influence in appointments, which Wernick said “can’t be taken for granted.” He noted that high-level appointments, including Governor-in-Council appointments, are not under the purview of the PSC.

“From a system point of view, you want to know that imperfect humans always do things and that they’re being detected and corrected in their consequences,” Wernick said.

Jessome said the number of investigation requests tended to be proportionate to the number of appointments in any given organization.

“We expect large-size organizations that conduct many high-volume appointment processes to be the subject of a higher proportion of investigation requests,” Jessome said, though details on which organizations made the most requests were not shared. “Similarly, organizations with a strong departmental oversight system or that conduct outreach activities may have more investigation requests, as irregularities are detected and addressed appropriately.”

The report said the agency completed 173 investigation files during the past fiscal year, a whopping 188-per-cent increase over the previous year.

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Jessome said more investigations were completed because the agency hired additional investigators and cleared backlog investigation files.

The PSC had not noticed a significant increase in the number of investigation requests it received or an increase in the proportion of investigation requests it decided to investigate, Jessome said.

Data from the report did indicate, however, that the number of founded cases was much higher than in previous years.

A graph depicting the number of founded investigation cases per fiscal year. Photo by Infogram

Of founded cases, 14 were related to fraud 2022-23, compared to 10 in 2021-22, nine in 2020-21, 19 in 2019-20 and 17 in 2018-19.

There were also 29 founded cases of improper political activities last year, compared to 16 in 2021-22, seven in 2020-21, 20 in 2019-20 and seven in 2018-19.

The largest number (66) of founded cases concerned error, omission or improper conduct in an external appointment process. That was up from eight in 2021-22, 13 in 2020-21, six in 2019-20 and four in 2018-19.

According to the PSC website, examples of error or omission in an appointment process include a lack of evidence that an appointee met job qualifications and failure to consider a person with priority entitlement, such as an employee who had been laid off or was returning from a leave of absence.

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Improper conduct in an appointment process, the website states, is “unsuitable behaviour, whether by action or inaction” and can include failing to disclose a relationship between a board member and a candidate or tailoring the process to benefit a specific candidate.

Jessome said the increase in founded investigations related to error, omission or improper conduct were “mainly due to the investigation of one appointment process that yielded multiple individual cases.”

The PSC would not share information related to that specific appointment or the investigations, adding they contained personal information and were protected under the Privacy Act.

“This said, it is not uncommon that a high-volume appointment process yields multiple individual cases as a staffing irregularity may have affected several appointments made further to that appointment process,” Jessome said.

Wernick said he believed what the PSC was referring to was usually called “creating a pool,” where many candidates were screened to create a roster that managers could draw from.

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“In theory, creating pools is a good way to speed up hiring and filling vacancies,” Wernick said, adding that those in the pool were essentially pre-cleared and could be hired quickly. “However, the case shows that they have to be done correctly or multiple appointments can be messed up. It shows the importance of good training for middle managers.”

Jessome said the PSC had started offering workshops targeted to managers and others involved in appointment processes.

“These workshops offer ways to prevent the most frequent staffing irregularities such as errors, cheating, fraud and favouritism and to detect them when they occur,” Jessome said, adding that workshops had also been offered to “staffing professionals and that the PSC had been posting summaries of some of its investigations online.

Jessome said deputy heads were also responsible for establishing training prerequisites for hiring managers when delegating staffing authorities, which must include training on unconscious bias in staffing.

“The PSC can take any corrective action that it considers appropriate in founded allegations or concerns,” Jessome said, adding that actions could include training, temporary withdrawal of staffing sub-delegation, revocation of the appointment, or reassessment of the candidate. “Corrective actions are determined on a case-by-case basis with a goal to correct irregularities or prevent reoccurrences.”

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In the coming year, the report noted, the PSC plans to conduct a system-wide staffing audit to “shed light on areas of relative strength and weakness in public service staffing” and “address any risks to the integrity of the staffing system.” The previous audit was completed in 2018.

“The current system-wide staffing audit will examine whether appointment and appointment processes comply with specific legislative, policy and regulatory requirements; whether the choice of appointment process (i.e., use of advertised or non-advertised appointment processes) adhered to the direction established by the deputy head,” Jessome said. “As such, it will identify any staffing irregularities related to those objectives.”