The City now has a new whistleblower policy, with Council’s approval of what was a draft policy.
The policy now provides a mechanism for elected officials and employees to raise concerns related to serious misconduct.
“Serious misconduct” is defined as:
*Serious violations of City policies or applicable acts, regulations or bylaws;
*Gross misuse of City resources for any illegal, improper, or unethical purpose;
*Fraud, theft, embezzling funds, or accepting kickbacks or bribes;
*Misappropriating funds, misdirecting funds or assets, or misuse of corporate information;
*Manipulating City accounting or audit records or destroying any accounting or audit-related
records except as permitted by the City’s records management bylaw and procedures;
*Failure to take reasonable steps to report and/or rectify actions that may impact negatively on the City’s reputation resulting in the public losing confidence in the organization’s ability to deliver services;
*Violations of the Protection against Retaliation section of this policy; or
*Deliberately concealing information related to any of the above.
The policy also provides protections against retaliation for any employee who lodges a complaint.
