{"id":587213,"date":"2026-04-07T03:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T03:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/587213\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T03:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T03:25:11","slug":"oc-transpo-hiring-underqualified-candidates-ottawas-auditor-general-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/587213\/","title":{"rendered":"OC Transpo hiring underqualified candidates, Ottawa’s Auditor General says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ottawa\u2019s Auditor General has found<\/a> that OC Transpo engaged in hiring practices which prioritized underqualified candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these cases were very blatantly obvious,\u201d Auditor General Natalie Gougeon told the committee at a recent meeting.<\/p>\n

The investigation also found OC Transpo failed to publicly post certain management and professional-exempt (MPE) positions. And, the auditor general reported, many job descriptions have been unchanged for well over a decade.<\/p>\n

The city also requires job vacancies of greater than 12 months must be posted for competition. Gougeon found 10 instances where OC Transpo violated this requirement. Seven of these cases led to candidates being hired that \u201cdid not meet the education or the experience requirement of the position as outlined in the job description.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese practices create unfairness and inequity in staffing processes, as individuals with the same qualifications are not treated consistently,\u201d Deputy Auditor General Joanne Gorenstein said. \u201cIt also raises questions as to the appropriateness of the minimum education and experience levels identified and the need for these positions to undergo job evaluation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation came about because of a tip from the city\u2019s anonymous Fraud and Waste Hotline, following an increased awareness campaign<\/a> in March for Fraud Prevention Month.<\/p>\n

Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry, the audit committee chair, expressed concern over the signal this sends to new hires and the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt speaks to the culture of an organization like OC Transpo and the message that we\u2019re trying to send as a city,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n

Orleans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts wondered about a lack of \u201cmessaging around recruitment\u201d when it came to senior management jobs, something OC Transpo\u2019s Interim Manager Troy Charter said is largely because these positions make up a small per cent of OC Transpo\u2019s total hires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about hundreds or even dozens of positions in the way we do with bus operators or mechanics,\u201d Charter told the committee. \u201cBut we need to do a better job of documenting and communicating our practices to staff and the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charter added the organization aims to balance promoting qualified internal candidates while also respecting the competition process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe value the competition process,\u201d Charter said, \u201cbut there are circumstances where appointments make sense, knowing that you have internal staff that have the knowledge and in-house experience, but not necessarily the education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lack of documentation for how they tried to determine equivalency, and many of these supposed equivalences were too far to even be justifiable,\u201d Gougeon said.<\/p>\n

The Auditor General\u2019s report made three recommendations, all accepted by OC Transpo. The report calls on OC Transpo to consistently post new vacancies of more than 12 months, properly document any rationale regarding appointments and competitions and periodically review minimum education and experience requirements tied to positions.<\/p>\n

The recommendations, accepted by the committee, go to City Council on April 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa\u2019s Auditor General has found that OC Transpo engaged in hiring practices which prioritized underqualified candidates. \u201cSome of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739,103480,103481],"class_list":{"0":"post-587213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-ottawa","11":"tag-ottcity","12":"tag-ottnews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587213","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=587213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}