The City of Ottawa fired four employees and another two resigned after the auditor general’s office investigated tips reported to its fraud and waste hotline in 2018, according to an annual report tabled at the city’s audit committee on Thursday.
Two of those employees were each dismissed for inappropriate conduct against a resident living in one of the city’s four long-term care facilities.
One of the staff members “committed criminal misconduct” against a resident; the other verbally abused a resident. The auditor general’s office did not name the facility — or facilities — where these two incidents occurred.
The other two employees were let go for smoking marijuana in a city vehicle while on the clock. Auditor General Ken Hughes pointed out this occurred before cannabis was legalized in Canada, but he said the consequence would have remained the same even after Oct. 17, 2018.
- The city had purchased, in 2017, six trucks and attachments for snow plowing on OC Transpo properties but it turned out the trucks’ front axels couldn’t take the weight of the plow attachments. The auditor general found this occurred because a city-created chart used to track and assess the weight capacities of city vehicles was “incomplete.” The city had to remove the attachments, buy six new trucks and equip them with the plows, all to the tune of $82,200.
- A manager hired family members, which violated both city and union rules. The manager was giving a letter of warning and the city launched refresher training for supervisors on recruiting and hiring practices last fall.
- A resident provided the municipality with two quotes to repair damages allegedly caused by one of the city’s vehicles. The city suspected one or both of the quotes may have been forged and referred the case to the Ottawa police.
AG couldn’t identify thief behind stolen cash from insecure safe at Meridian Theatre
In one case, however, Hughes and his team weren’t able to identify who made off with $1,360 in cash from an insecure drop safe in an office at the Meridian Theatre at Centrepointe last November.The theft came months after a cash compliance review conducted at the city recommended all safes be placed in a secure area, according to Miner. At the time, city management said the drop safe at the Meridian Theatre — a publicly-owned performance hall in the city’s west end — would be moved, Miner said.But that didn’t happen and the safe was not under camera surveillance when it was pilfered on either November 6 or November 7, councillors heard during a separate report released by the auditor general’s office on Thursday.Many councillors expressed disappointment that the safe in question was left in a vulnerable place.“Here we are, back here again with this situation,” said Coun. Allan Hubley, who chaired the audit committee during the last term of council. Because the theft was’t caught on camera, Hughes said it’s impossible to pinpoint the culprit, determine exactly how and when the theft occurred and recover the money. It’s also unclear whether the safe door had been locked or left unlocked at the time of the robbery.WATCH (June 26, 2019): A Kelowna woman is out almost $40,000 after falling for a sophisticated scam, but lost almost $80,000- Retired Quebec teacher buys winning lottery ticket at last minute, wins $40M
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