More than a thousand complaints of wrongdoing were reported to Toronto’s Fraud and Waste Hotline Program last year, the highest number the program has seen in a year since it launched two decades ago, according to a report from the city’s auditor general.
The hotline recorded 1,032 complaints in 2022 involving around 1,200 allegations of wrongdoing, which follow-up investigations discovered $121,000 in losses that year. Three employees were disciplined as a result of investigations and actions were taken in 12 instances against vendors, employees, or members of the public.
The report also warned the number of losses is expected to increase as the remainder of the outstanding complaints are completed this year.
Between 2018 and 2022, the hotline program discovered about $27.9 million in actual losses and $1.5 million in potential losses, had they not been detected. Alarmingly, the number of complaints have been on the rise in recent years.
The AG’s report said that the number of complaints last year was 26 per cent higher than last year and 76 per cent higher than 2019’s figures.
The chair of Toronto’s audit committee told Global News he was encouraged that people felt compelled to report actions they didn’t think were above board. But Coun. Stephen Holyday said he didn’t know why there has been a rise in complaints over the past four years.
The Chair of the Audit Committee, Stephen Holyday, said at the end of the day, residents pay for fraud committed by staff, contractors, or citizens.
Matthew Bingley/Global News
What truly matters, he said, is making sure that issues are caught. “They’re stealing from everybody,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s the citizens of the city that pay these bills.”
“Every dollar matters and that’s why this process is so important. It’s about ensuring public confidence in government,” said Holyday. “Knowing that your tax dollars are used wisely and if someone is taking advantage of the system that it’s stopped and where it’s possible, that the money is recovered.”
Auditor general Tara Anderson will be before the city’s audit committee just days before city council meets to shore up the city’s budget — a process that has already been fraught with high tempers as councillors make a case for spending in areas that face service cuts or a lack of social spending.
The city’s budget chief, Gary Crawford, told Global News that the loss of money found by Anderson’s office in the past year could have gone to some of the areas in desperate need of more funding.
“When you look at the average salary of a city employee, it could be anywhere between $50-$80,000 or more,” said Crawford. Those salaries, he said, could have gone towards funding employees at city shelters.
Crawford drew a parallel between the savings the auditor general routinely identifies and the $6 million recently identified for additional budgetary spending.
“These kind of reports, as frustrating as they are, highlight the importance of not only the hotline, but our auditor general, who does incredible work looking for fraud, looking for waste,” he said.
