Overwhelmed by workload, public sector integrity commissioner asks for more money

Canada's public service integrity watchdog says it's so overwhelmed with tips about wrongdoing, from mismanagement to violations of departmental codes of conduct, that it needs to double its budget just to keep up.

Harriet Solloway, public sector integrity commissioner for just over a year, is warning the «crisis» could undermine her office's mandate — to investigate wrongdoing in the federal public sector and protect whistleblowers from reprisal.

She said it's already causing two- to three-year delays in analyzing new cases.

«If we don't get to the investigations, we can't get to the conclusions and we can't make recommendations,» Solloway said. «If there are things that are amiss, they will continue to fester and probably get worse rather than improve.»

Currently, 161 files regarding alleged wrongdoing or wrongful reprisal are on hold — five times the number of cases the commissioner has capacity to investigate each month, according to Solloway's office.

Since the start of the current fiscal year on April 1, the commissioner's office has already received 198 disclosures. It received a total of 332 during the previous fiscal year, suggesting a continuing upward trend, according to Solloway.

Advocates and whistleblowers have criticized the commissioner's office in the past, but Solloway said the surge in disclosures is a sign of growing confidence in their work. She said she's fearful any delays could undermine that new confidence.

«We may get to the point where … evidence may no longer be available. People may move on, we may not be able to find them. People's memories fade, and so it will impact the outcome,» she said.

«In short order, I will have to determine which parts of our mandate we continue and which parts I have to