A federal green fund ignored numerous complaints of mismanagement and a toxic work environment before Ottawa intervened and suspended its funding this fall, a whistleblower testified in front of a parliamentary committee Monday evening.
The former employee of Sustainable Development Technologies Canada (SDTC) testified openly in front of the industry committee of the House, on the condition that his name not be mentioned. As he testified openly, his image can be used.
According to this witness, tens of millions of dollars in public funds were misspent by the federal foundation, which funds small and medium-sized businesses in the clean tech sector.
He said employees had raised numerous questions over the years about breaches to the conflict of interest policy, favouritism at the senior management level and "gross mismanagement" of public funds.
According to the whistleblower, these allegations were ignored within SDTC until a group of current and former employees, of which he is a member, denounced the situation to the government at the beginning of this year.
"[The complaints] were never taken seriously and were always swept under the rug," the former employee said.
After receiving the whistleblower complaint, the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) commissioned an inquiry by Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton. The report released in October validated a number of allegations raised by whistleblowers.
The whistleblower worked at SDTC from 2020 to...
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