The city is considering establishing a whistleblower system so its employees, elected officials and committee members can confidentially report suspected incidents of wrongdoing.
Heidi de Vries, Brantford’s general manager of people legislated services and planning, is recommending establishing a safe reporting program and hotline, through which tipsters could report fraud and other criminal activity, violations of corporate policies, harassment, bullying and other incidents.
The reporting program would be co-ordinated by an independent third party at a cost of up to $9,000 annually.
“At present, the city doesn’t have a formal, safe-reporting program and doesn’t have a reliable system for receiving reports of suspected wrongdoing which also fully protects the identity of complainants,” said DeVries in a report that was to to be considered by city councillors at a committee meeting on Tuesday night.
“As a result, some staff, elected officials or committee/task force members may feel uncomfortable reporting suspected instances of wrongdoing by other members of the city’s workplace community for fear of reprisal/retribution.”
DeVries said that, because there isn’t currently a safe reporting system, it’s possible the city hasn’t been made aware of misconduct.
All of the city’s current reporting tools require a complainant to identify themselves to at least one other person to initiate an investigation.
DeVries said some international research...
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