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Reports of fraud and waste by city workers went up last year according to a recent report.
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Reports of fraud and waste by city workers went up by nine per cent last year - with Torontonians and city workers blowing the whistle on everything from an alleged embezzlement from one of the city's agencies, boards and commissions to a falsified parking permit, so an employee could park near their workplace.
The annual report of the Auditor General's Fraud and Waste Hotline contains a litany of stories of fakery, criminality and routine conflict of interest - but for Doug Holyday, who chairs the city's audit committee, the bad news is a good indication that the hotline is doing its job.
"I think the hotline since its inception has increased just about every year," he said. "That's just a result of people becoming more familiar with the number, the system, and if they come across something that isn't right that's a good place to turn it in without getting involved."
Holyday said most city workers are honest and diligent.
"But dealing with thousands of people in the work place, you'll get some bad apples. Some people can devise schemes to better themselves, and without the help of other employees we wouldn't come up with it for a long while. It's good, then."
Some of the schemes are detailed in the report from the auditor general, which goes to the audit committee on Feb. 12.
Among the more outrageous:
-In March of last year, the Toronto Police Service told the auditor general about a possible fraud at one of the city's agencies, boards and commissions (ABC). They had found $273,000 deposited into an account by a third party service provider had been reversed. In addition, the third party had retained $47,000 that belonged to the ABC. Attempts to get the matter corrected haven't been successful.
-In addition to an earlier reported $180,000 benefit claim fraud - which involved nine employees in March of last year, and was widely reported - in December, the city's insurer found another $47,000 in alleged fraudulent claims coming from a dental office. Police arrested two employees of the office, one of whom was a spouse of a city employee. There was no evidence the employee knew about the case.
-A city employee who tried to collect "fees" from homeowners to qualify for a grant to upgrade their services was caught and convicted of three counts of fraud.
-One city employee purchased more than $7,500 worth of food for their division, over and above the division's budget. The food was nowhere to be found. The employee, meanwhile, was fired and is under investigation by the Toronto Police Service.
-A supervisor in a city division was caught running a private business on corporate time. The report says the supervisor and another employee "hired" other city staff, who felt compelled to work at the business "as they did not want to adversely impact their City work environment." In August, the matter came to the auditor general's attention. The two employees were disciplined.
The hotline received 667 complaints in 2009. Fifty-one led to investigations, and 46 have been substantiated.