Ministers, appointees should face stiffer sanctions for ethics breaches, says former commissioner

Public office holders who violate the ethics rules should face stiffer penalties, a former federal ethics commissioner told a parliamentary committee Thursday.

Testifying before the House of Commons ethics committee, Mario Dion questioned whether the penalties under the Conflict of Interest Act are sufficient.

«I have expressed the view in the past that maybe the issue of penalties should be looked at,» Dion told MPs. «There is an absence of direct penalty in relation to the act. It should be looked at in terms of the credibility of the system. It would help if there was a possible sanction to be recommended by the commissioner but to be imposed, potentially, by the House or by another upper authority.»

The Conflict of Interest Act applies to more than 2,700 public office holders, such as cabinet ministers, their staff members and a wide range of appointees. Members of Parliament are governed by the Conflict of Interest Code.

Recently appointed ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein said the most significant penalty for someone who is found to have violated the act is the fact that the violation is made public.

«The main penalty for breaching the act is that you basically get certified that your reputation is not what you are holding it up to be, that you don't understand your job and that you acted in conflict,» von Finckenstein told the committee. «That's a pretty bad penalty for an elected official.»

Von Finckenstein said he was only appointed recently as the full-time ethics commissioner after serving as interim commissioner. While he has ideas about how the rules can be improved, he said he will express them later.

In January, von Finckenstein appeared before the same committee to discuss Prime Minister Justin