Peel police have launched a probe into a secretive City of Brampton bonus program that for years allegedly paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to non-union employees without council’s knowledge.

“I can confirm Peel Regional Police Fraud Bureau is currently investigating the complaint. Because it is an active investigation, I am unable to provide any further details or answer any specific questions as we do not want to jeopardize the investigation,” said Peel police Sgt. Joshua Colley, referring to a secretive bonus program that allegedly paid out $1.25 million to non-union employees going back to 2009.

Reacting to an internal audit process that uncovered a practice known as Outside Policy Requests (OPR), Brampton councillors voted unanimously in June to ask that police undertake an investigation to uncover everything behind the fund, including who approved it and who received the payments.

A City of Brampton spokesperson confirmed that “police resources have been assigned to the investigation” but would not say whether investigators have started questioning city staffers.

“Since the investigation is within their jurisdiction, it is inappropriate for the city to comment.”

Leading up to the June vote, councillors argued Peel Regional Police would be under pressure to relinquish control of the investigation because some Brampton councillors pass the local police budget through regional council. At the time, some councillors said they wanted either the Ontario Provincial Police or the RCMP to lead the investigation to avoid any potential conflict or the appearance of conflict.

Regional Councillor Martin Medeiros, who won support on the motion requesting an external police investigation, said he has “full confidence in the local police force.”

“However, I also understand there may be a perception of conflict of interest due to the fact that councillors have oversight over the police budget,” said Medeiros, who urged councillors to unanimously support the motion in order to move on from the scandals and troubles that have rocked local government in recent years.

Senior staff devised the OPR program that kept elected officials in the dark for years while they allegedly paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to other non-union employees, and possibly to themselves.

According to the audit investigation, which focused on the period between January 2009 and May 2014, payments to individual staff ranged from as little as $123 to more than $95,000. A total of $316,000 was paid to just eight employees.

The report notes that “favouritism” was listed as one of the Top 10 reasons to allow an OPR bonus in documents never shared publicly or with council.

The city stated that there was no OPR line item in the annual budget. It also noted that council approval for the OPRs was not sought.

The auditors noted a sudden drop to almost no OPRs after 2014, the year of the last municipal election.

The audit report noted that some of the city’s most senior bureaucrats knew about the bonus practice all along.

Brampton’s auditors said that the secret bonuses were not authorized under relevant rules and that over time OPR “requests were approved for reasons beyond its initial intention.”

They added that with no oversight or formalized processes “the OPR practice became mismanaged.”

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“As councillors we have to have a certain amount of trust in staff. Sometimes, staff don’t follow the rules,” said Regional Councillor John Sprovieri, the first to demand a full police investigation after the fund was revealed.

The veteran councillor added he wants to see “safeguards put in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

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