Phoenix fiasco could have been prevented, whistleblower advocate says

Whistleblower protection advocate David Hutton says the multi-million-dollar payroll fiasco now plaguing the federal government mighthave been avoided had public servants felt empowered to come forward.

• New integrity watchdog says 'we've gotteeth'
• Audit finds mismanagement in 2 watchdog cases

He was told a few years ago that the initial Phoenix demonstration project wasn't working and was rife with flaws, he said.

"If we had a decentwhistleblowersystem in this country, those people would have been able to come forward," saidHutton.

"A few senior people would have egg on their faces, but the problems could have been fixed and the roll-out would have been smooth and no one would be talking about Phoenix today, never mind this ongoing catastrophe it's proven to be."

Huttonwon't say how he knew about the Phoenix problems or who he spoke to at the time. He said many people knew about the issuesbut didn't alert decision-makersout offear of reprisals.

Phoenix is just one of the reasonsHuttonand otherwhistlebloweradvocates are making presentations to the government operations and estimates committee this week as it reviews the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act.

Review overdue

For yearsHutton was the open ear at the end of a hotline, listening to public servants considering blowing the whistle on problems inside their government departments aboutissues including public health and safety, the environment and security.

He has had to keep a lot of secrets and carefully advise bureaucrats under a disclosure protection system that he claims is broken.

"The committee is the first opportunity for more than 10 years for civil society people like myself to have a voice and explain what's going on with this badly broken whistleblower system," said Hutton.

The disclosure protection act was brought into law by the former Harper government in 2007 and was supposed to go through a legislative review in 2011, which didn't happen.

Commissioner underperforming, Hutton says

The legislation also established the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada (PSIC) with a goal to "handle disclosures of wrongdoing and help protect those who blow the whistle."

About 400,000 workers at federal agencies, departments and Crown corporations are supposed to have access to the integrity commissioner.

But as far as Hutton is concerned, the commissioner's office has been a disgrace.

"The number of cases of wrongdoing the PSIC uncovered in 10 years is 11,"said Hutton. "The number of cases of reprisals sent to the tribunal is seven. So you're talking about a total of 18 findings. That's an average of two a year."

Meanwhile, Hutton said, the office has a full staff and a budget of tens of millions of dollars a year.

Heis also quick to point out the scandal involvingthe first public sector integrity commissioner, Christiane Ouimet, who resigned two days before being called out by then-auditor generalSheila Fraser for "inappropriate and unacceptable" behaviour.

Fraser also found "gross mismanagement" of files under the next commissioner.

Looking for a better example

"The result of this is that Canada has a reputation internationally as being the Enron of whistleblower protection," Hutton said, referring to the U.S. firm that collapsed amidst a massive fraud.

"This is where you come to see how it shouldn't be done."

That's why Jim Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University, said the government should look to other countries when it comes to fixing the law.

Turkagreedthere are other approaches far more effective than Canada's.

"There's wonderful legislation now in Ireland for example," said Turk, who hopes the government is committed to making serious changes to the current legislation.

Not a cure-all, NDP says

NDP MP for Regina-Lewvan, Erin Weir, sits on the Government Operations and Estimates Committee and agreedthe system needs to be fixed so whistleblowers feel comfortable coming forward and reporting on issues such as the Phoenix fiasco.

But Weir also cautioned that not all problems will be solved through an improved disclosure protection law.

"Whistleblower protection may not be a panacea that's going to prevent governments from ever making bad decisions, but certainly having more and better information out there is going to lead to better decisions on the whole," said Weir.

The government committee will report to Parliament with its review of the law.

Weir said it's up to the government to make amendments to the act.

The office of the current public sector integrity commissioner, Joe Friday, declined comment. The commissioner will be making his own presentation to the committee next week.