Ombudsman concerned by lack of public servant whistleblowers

Saskatchewan’s Ombudsman and Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner is concerned with how few public sector workers come forward with complaints.

In her annual report released Thursday, Mary McFadyen said she was only contacted by public servants six times in 2018.

While she said it would be nice to think that means there was very little wrongdoing in government institutions, with thousands of public employees across the province, she doesn’t believe that’s the case.

“We do have people coming forward to us who want to remain anonymous. We’ll get brown envelopes, so that to me shows that there is a fear,” said McFadyen.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act came into effect in 2012, allowing employees of government institutions to disclose possible cases of wrongdoing to the commissioner or a designated officer at their workplace.

McFadyen said the low number is troubling because the reason the act was made was to make sure public servants felt comfortable coming forward if they thought there was something not quite right in their workplace. She said their concerns are taken seriously and their identity is kept confidential so they would not have to fear reprisal.

Employees have a choice of going straight to the commissioner or to a designated officer within their institution. Under the act, those officers must be a senior official.

“Is that a reason why people aren’t coming forward?” asked McFadyen. “Some people might not feel comfortable coming forward to somebody who is high up in the chain of command.”

McFadyen wants to find out if the system is working and look into what could be improved. She said federal employees can make a disclosure directly to their manager if they feel more comfortable. Currently, provincial employees wouldn’t be protected if they did that and must make disclosures to those designated officers.

McFadyen said she has not seen any direct signs of reprisals in the investigations it has done but assured if that happens, she can investigate that as well.

Minister Don Morgan said the government is trying its best to reduce bad practice and he’s hopeful there really aren’t more complaints. He said anyone who does have issues should feel comfortable and empowered to come forward.

“I’m hopeful that there aren’t people out there that aren’t happy,” Morgan said.