{"id":575571,"date":"2026-04-01T17:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575571\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:21:09","slug":"ottawa-fraud-hotline-flags-surge-in-serious-staff-misconduct-time-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575571\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa fraud hotline flags surge in serious staff misconduct, time theft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Misuse or Misappropriation of Assets produced another 15 substantiated investigations, highlighting systemic problems with attendance management and conflict\u2011of\u2011interest controls. In one case, \u201ca City employee was working a second job with an outside employer while on paid sick leave with the City.\u201d In others, employees \u201cwere found to be working a second job during their working hours with the City,\u201d misrepresenting hours worked to inflate overtime, using City vehicles for personal purposes, or being \u201cfound to be sleeping while on shift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hcamag.com\/ca\/specialization\/employment-law\/inside-employee-misconduct-rings-closing-blind-spots-on-fraud-and-theft\/564755\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Employee misconduct<\/a> can be a more serious issue if there\u2019s more than one employee committing the misconduct, according to a previous report.<\/p>\n<p>Discipline for misconduct<\/p>\n<p>The pattern of allegations underscores that misconduct is not confined to one unit or type of behaviour. Transit Services generated the highest number of reports (90, or 30% of the total), but Public Works, Emergency and Protective Services, Community and Social Services, and Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services all recorded double\u2011digit case counts.<\/p>\n<p>Human Resources\u2011related cases, covering \u201cworkplace culture or labour relations issues,\u201d also spiked to 28, up from just seven in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Management responses show that discipline and policy fixes are now routine outcomes when misconduct is confirmed. In 2025, leaders issued 112 corrective actions tied to investigated reports, including 37 mandatory reviews of policies and procedures, 15 written communications to all staff in affected departments, 11 process improvements, and a series of individual sanctions. These ranged from letters and verbal warnings to increased performance management, suspensions and five terminations, along with at least one case of financial repayment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Misuse or Misappropriation of Assets produced another 15 substantiated investigations, highlighting systemic problems with attendance management and conflict\u2011of\u2011interest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,220973,220974,220975,20739],"class_list":["post-575571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-employee-fraud","tag-fraud-hotline","tag-office-of-the-auditor-general-oag","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}