Tips to Ottawa’s fraud and waste hotline find city staff working second job during work hours, sleeping on shift

Ottawa City Hall is seen in this undated file photo. (CTV News Ottawa)

Five City of Ottawa employees were fired in 2025 following tips to the fraud and waste hotline, according to the auditor general.

The annual report on the fraud and waste hotline, to be presented to the audit committee on Tuesday, doesn’t specify why employees were fired or why corrective action was taken against staff members following the investigations, but does outline what the auditor general found while looking into tips from city staff and the public.

Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon’s office completed 364 investigations into tips filed to the fraud and waste hotline last year, with 57 allegations substantiated.

The substantiated investigations include:

• City employees found to be working a second job during working hours with the City of Ottawa
• A city employee working a second job with an outside employer while on paid sick leave with the City of Ottawa
• City employees were found using their city vehicles for personal use during work hours
• City employees were found to be sleeping while on shift
• City employees misrepresented their hours worked, resulting in overtime payments that exceeded their actual time worked
• City staff hired into roles “without the necessary qualifications or sufficient training to conduct the responsibilities outlined in the job description,” the AG said.
• City employees were found to be in violation of the applicable collective agreements as it pertains to hours of work, resulting in excessive amounts of overtime, and supervisors were found to not have taken appropriate action as a result of a lack of staff monitoring and policy enforcement.
• City employees were found to have violated standard operating procedures by not starting their shifts on time, taking unauthorized breaks, parking and/or stopping city vehicles in impermissible locations, and deviating from their assigned tasks.
• A City employee was found to have improperly included a relative in a hiring pool, violating the City’s Employee Code of Conduct and Human Resources hiring processes.
• An external vendor was found to have not completed work appropriately or in alignment with their agreement with the city.
• City employees were found to be operating city vehicles in a manner that was in violation of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act and city policy.

The corrective actions taken in 2025 include 37 instances of a mandatory review of policy and procedures with staff, 15 written communications to all department staff, 11 letters of warning issued to employees, 10 verbal warnings to communicate expectations and corrective action, seven letters of expectation issued to employees, five days of suspension issued, three letters of discipline and one “repayments and recoveries.”

Gougeon’s report shows 302 reports were filed with the fraud and waste hotline in 2025, down eight per cent from 328 tips from 2024. Fifty-nine per cent of the tips came from a City of Ottawa employee.

Of the 302 tips to the fraud and waste hotline, 90 were about transit services, 25 regarding public works, 19 about emergency and protective services and 13 about recreation, cultural and facility services. Gougeon said 103 of the 302 tips were about the misuse or misappropriation of assets, and 102 were about business integrity and compliance.

Gougeon says of the 364 investigations completed in 2025, 137 were not applicative, 70 had insufficient information to investigate, 44 allegations were accurate but did not constitute fraud or waste, and 26 were inaccurate.

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