The City of Hamilton is continuing to taket fraud and money waste seriously as the City Auditor released the second Fraud and Waste Annual Report.
For more details, please continue reading below…
City Auditor Charles Brown detailed 80 complaints his office received between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.
The Fraud and Waste Hotline is for the general public, City staff, and those doing business with the City where they can report suspected fraud, waste or wrongdoing involving City resources. It is a confidential and anonymous service run by an independent third party which can be accessed by phone or online. The service is available 24/7.
Hamilton councillors approved the pilot program in June 2018.
This year’s report, which covers July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, fielded 80 reports received with 59% coming from employees and 41% from the public. In total, the office substantiated 32% of the complaints.
This year’s report also outlines that, following investigations, eight city employees have been fired.
The report goes on to state that one other employee received disciplinary action and five others corrective actions, including meetings, letters to lawyers and letters outlining expectations.
One investigation started with a public complaint about two city employees playing golf with a vendor during business hours resulted in the Office of the City Auditor (OCA) uncovering an estimated $233,00 in waste and mismanagement, according to CBC Hamilton.
According to the report, the staffers were reportedly golfing with a vendor vying for a city request for proposal (RFP) that was worth roughly $2 million over three years. Another investigation found that a city employee was misrepresenting their position with the City, and was being provided international trips from a vendor.
In addition to the above instances of fraud, Brown’s report found instances of fraudulent use of parking passes, equipment theft from a City work yard as well as inappropriate use of the City’s internal database.
The complete Fraud and Waste Report can be found here.
Questions or concerns?
If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact our office here.