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Sixteen City of Ottawa employees were fired as a result of tips to the city’s fraud and waste hotline in 2013-14 for offences ranging from lying about sick days to stealing money from coworkers and using a city facility after hours, according to auditor general Ken Hughes.

Hughes and his team investigated more than 330 reports to the hotline over the past two years, he told the city’s audit committee in his report Monday morning. The most common complaint was unauthorized use or misuse of the city property, information or time.

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The hotline, now 10 years old, allows tipsters and whistleblowers to anonymously report wrongdoing by city employees. Among complaints found to be legitimate were 15 cases of theft, 36 of misuse or unauthorized use of city property or time, and four cases of conflict of interest or unethical conduct.

In 2014, more than three-quarters of the complaints came from the public. Hughes noted that the city has 17,000 employees — the equivalent of a small town — so it’s unrealistic to expect that there would be never be any wrongdoing.