There is growing public outrage over the Harper government’s controversial half a million dollar golden handshake to disgraced former public sector integrity commissioner Christiane Ouimet.

Thirty accountability agencies have banded together to call on Parliament’s public accounts committee to pass a resolution directing the Conservative government to quash the secret severance pay package, arguing severance pay is for public servants who are fired, not those who quit in disgrace.

Ouimet, who was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2007, abruptly resigned in October as public sector integrity commissioner amid allegations she bullied her staff and failed to protect whistleblowers, among other things. She still had four years in her term.

“The government has generously rewarded Christiane Ouimet, the senior official whose serious misconduct for three years undermined efforts to combat misconduct within the public service,” said David Hutton, executive director of Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR), which has been pushing for proper whistleblower protection for years.

“It is outrageous,” he told the Toronto Star.

Hutton said the Conservatives are “still refusing even to promise meaningful action to fix its discredited whistleblower protection system.”

During her three years as public integrity commissioner, Ouimet investigated only seven of the more than 200 complaints her office received and never found any wrongdoing against whistleblowers.

Ouimet resigned near the end of a two-year investigation by Auditor General Sheila Fraser, who discovered, among other things, the commissioner had amassed binders full of information on a former employee and passed it along to government officials and prospective private sector employers.

According to Ouimet’s departure agreement, obtained by The Canadian Press, she was paid a separation allowance of $354,000, representing 18 months of regular salary, $53,100 in lieu of foregone benefits, and another $137,000 in severance pay.

The combined groups are also asking the public accounts committee to require the government officials who negotiated the Ouimet deal to testify, and to question the government on whether a similar secret package was offered to oft-criticized former Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro, who left office in spring 2007.

“His performance was suspect as well,” said Duff Conacher, of Democracy Watch and chairperson of the Government Ethics Coalition, who believes Shapiro got a similar undisclosed golden handshake of more than half a million dollars.

“I think that it happened before and for the same reason,” Conacher said.

Ouimet is scheduled to appear before Parliament’s public accounts committee Thursday after having failed to respond to subpoena requests for several weeks.