By Canadian Press

Watchdog finds mismanagement, ‘disturbing’ lack of disclosure at Defence Department

Sep 19, 2023 | 9:44 AM

OTTAWA — A federal watchdog says the Department of National Defence committed wrongdoing by contravening a law designed to help whistleblowers.

Public sector integrity commissioner Joe Friday released what he described as “disturbing” findings today related to disclosures by department.

He found that the Defence Department and the Canadian Armed Forces have a pattern of keeping the public in the dark when it comes to internal investigations of wrongdoing.

Friday’s report says that when his office launched an investigation in 2020, the department hadn’t updated a web page about public disclosures of wrongdoing since 2015.

He says whistleblower reports had resulted in three findings of wrongdoing, but information about the cases wasn’t made public until until 2021 and 2022, after Friday launched his investigation.

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Friday says there is gross mismanagement within the department and the lack of transparency doesn’t live up to the department’s legal obligations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2023.

The Canadian Press