The City of St. John’s is moving to repeal the St. John’s Whistleblower Protection bylaw and adopt a fraud policy that will come with an anonymous fraud reporting hotline.
“We’ve had our staff going through all our policies needing to update them, and that was a policy that was recommended,” said Mayor Danny Breen.
At council’s committee of the whole meeting on Wednesday, council decided to approve the draft fraud policy. It will still require a final approval vote at a future regular council meeting.
Once approved, anyone – including city employees and the public – can call the hotline if they suspect fraud. City staff expect the hotline to be operational late next year.
Staff with internal audit will take all calls. A city spokesperson said it will not come with an additional cost to the city or additional staff.
Examples of fraud the policy might address include collusion with vendors; falsification of documents; inappropriate use of city resources; failure to declare conflicts of interest; theft, misappropriation or fraudulent use of city funds or property; misrepresentation of information; intention to deceive by the suppression of truth or the suggestion of what is false, and any similar activity.
The purpose of the policy includes safeguarding assets, funds, and information of the city from fraudulent activity; ensure consistent processes for the detection, reporting, and investigation of any act or suspected act of fraud; and protect employees from reprisal who report suspected fraud.
The new policy was recommended by both internal and external auditors.
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