Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen
A special investigator pinned much of the blame for the pension scandal rocking the RCMP on the autocratic leadership of former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli and called for a review into the culture of the Mounties and how they are governed.
David Brown, the former head of the Ontario Securities Commission, said yesterday that a “breach of trust” and failure of leadership are at the centre of the pension crisis that blackened the image of Canada’s national police force.
“In an already fractured culture, senior management was projecting an attitude of disinterest and callousness in respect of an issue of legitimate concern to every single member of the force: their pensions. In the process, the commissioner lost his troops,” he wrote.
Mr. Brown, who was brought in by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day in April to investigate the pension scandal, said the Ottawa police investigation into misuse of pension and insurance funds was not independent and recommended the OPP investigate the files to determine whether this lack of independence “materially” affected the outcome of the 15-month probe. Most of the investigators on the Ottawa police investigation were Mounties. The investigation wrapped up with no charges laid.
But, Mr. Brown rejected opposition calls for a public inquiry to get to the bottom of the pension fiasco, which has dominated hearings of the Commons public accounts committee for nearly three months. He said the issue has already faced the scrutiny of seven reports, investigations and audits, and a public inquiry would uncover “nothing new of value.”
Instead, he recommended a task force, drawn from the RCMP, bureaucrats, as well as experts in policing and governance, to examine the RCMP culture. The task force is to report as early as Dec. 14 with a plan to rebuild the force’s “horribly broken” management and governance structure.
He also recommended commendations and public recognition for the Mounties and RCMP employees who tried to bring the irregularities with the pension plan to Mr. Zaccardelli’s attention only to find themselves unfairly sidelined, dismissed or shuffled off to another job. He said not only did those who exposed the problems face “career damage,” those responsible for the mismanagement were given “soft landings.”
Few suffered as much as Denise Revine, the human resource director who lost her job after she uncovered pension fund irregularities during a routine budget review.
“This should have been a simple bump in the road,” Mr. Brown said. “An employee — doing her job — came across problems in the pension and insurance plans. She flagged those problems and they should have been dealt with swiftly and deliberately. Had that happened, we wouldn’t be here today.”
He concluded the mishandling of the pension funds was a “breach of trust” between senior management and RCMP members — a breach that extended to the broader culture of the force. But he said the pension fiasco may not have escalated into such a crisis if it weren’t for the strong command-and-control leadership style of Mr. Zaccardelli.
“The issue with Commissioner Zaccardelli was not just his autocratic leadership style, but the way in which he articulated it. He expressed himself in passionate (some say intemperate) ways, with little regard or apparent respect for those with whom he was dealing.”
Mr. Brown said the attitude and demeanour of Mr. Zaccardelli, who wielded more power than any corporate CEO, set the tone for the force. He said he didn’t question Mr. Zaccardelli’s commitment or “love” of the force, but said the former commissioner showed little respect or regard for those he dealt with. He allowed and did nothing to discourage that same brand of leadership from his senior management team.
“He allowed a culture to exist and grow that displeasing the commissioner was career-limiting,” Mr. Brown said.
“He reinforced that culture by reminding people often, ‘I am the Commissioner.’ While that may have been intended to reassure people that the buck stopped with him, it served mainly to make him seem completely unapproachable to all but the brave or foolhardy.”
Mr. Zaccardelli, who has denied wrongdoing in past public statements, had no comment yesterday.
Mr. Brown also took aim at Deputy Commissioner Paul Gauvin, the force’s chief financial officer, for refusing to take responsibility for the mismanagement of the pension and insurance funds. Deputy Commissioner Gauvin has insisted that the key problems were “human resources” issues, for which he wasn’t responsible.
But Mr. Brown said the CFO has to shoulder responsibility when millions of dollars are improperly taken out of Mounties’ pension plans.
Conservative MP John Williams, who recently attacked Deputy Commissioner Gauvin for lax oversight of contracting, said he shouldn’t continue in the job. Mr. Brown said he would leave any decision about whether Deputy Commissioner Gauvin should be fired to the new commissioner, who is expected to named any day. As for Mr. Zaccardelli, he said the former commissioner has already retired, so there’s no need for further action.
But Mr. Brown said he saw no sign of coverup as alleged by the parade of Mounties who stunned MPs nearly three months ago with allegations of corruption and coverup among senior management in the handling of the pension fund. Rather, he said the affair was mishandled because of “inadvertent misjudgment” by Mr. Zaccardelli.
Ron Lewis, the retired RCMP staff sergeant who lodged the original complaint about the misspending of pension funds with Mr. Zaccardelli, doesn’t agree and maintains that senior management wanted to bury the issue from the start.
He said he was surprised Mr. Brown delivered such a hard-hitting report “that zeroed in on the right issues and nailed Mr. Zaccardelli” and agreed a new governance structure is long overdue.
The opposition, however, which has lobbied for a full inquiry, labelled the report a whitewash that was destined from the start to recommend that no inquiry was needed.
Mr. Day said he will study the report over the next several days, but intends to move quickly and take action on the recommendations to bring in “fresh governance” into the force.
Mr. Brown’s findings seem to take a page out of the major in-house report into the culture of the RCMP that co-author Linda Duxbury has said was an early warning that the force was “institutionally sick” and headed for a crisis.
Mr. Brown interviewed Ms. Duxbury, a management expert at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, and refers to some of her startling findings.
Mr. Brown concluded that the top-down paramilitary style of governance for the RCMP doesn’t fit a large $3-billion organization. An operation this size can’t provide the “appropriate transparency, and accountability with a command-and-control structure.” He also suggested the RCMP adopt a board of directors model to provide oversight and challenge senior management.
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