Section 69 - Founded - Fraud - Executive candidate pressured subordinate to assist on exam

Authority: This investigation was conducted under section 69 of the Public Service Employment Act, S.C. 2003, c.22, ss. 12 and 13.

Issue: The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a public service executive committed fraud in an internal appointment process by enlisting the assistance of a subordinate during an unsupervised online exam.

Conclusions: The investigation concluded that the executive committed fraud in the appointment process by seeking and receiving assistance from a subordinate during the unsupervised online exam. This action was deliberately carried out to improve the executive’s chances of succeeding in the appointment process.

Facts: An appointment process was advertised to staff executive-level positions. Candidates had to successfully complete an unsupervised online exam in order to be found qualified.

The instructions prohibited candidates from discussing and sharing information from the exam with others. Candidates confirmed by returning the exam that they had read and understood the instructions and accepted the conditions of the exam.

During the investigation, the subordinate indicated that the executive requested and received assistance from them to complete the online exam. The subordinate knew that the executive was participating in an appointment process, but feared reprisals if they refused to provide assistance.

The executive denied seeking assistance to complete the online exam. However, because their testimony was found to be vague and inconsistent, it was not deemed credible. Prior to this investigation, the executive had completed several staffing courses, had participated in numerous staffing processes as an assessment board member and had been sub-delegated with staffing authority for many years.

As a result of this appointment process, the executive was promoted to a higher level position. The appointment process was compromised, as the promotion was based on invalid assessment results that the executive obtained by committing fraud.

Corrective action

After the conclusion of fraud in the appointment process, the Commission ordered that:

• the appointment of the employee be revoked, and that further to this revocation, the employee no longer be employed in the federal public service
• for 3 years, the individual must obtain the Commission’s written approval before accepting any position in the federal public service, failure to do so will result in the revocation of the new appointment
• for 3 years, the individual must inform the Commission of any casual work in the federal public service, failure to do so will result in the investigation report being sent to the responsible deputy head to advise them of the fraud committed by the individual

Investigation File No.: 17-18-06