RCMP Watch

(CBC News) - The Ontario Provincial Police will investigate whether there was any criminal misconduct involved in the management of the troubled RCMP insurance plan, the Mounties announced Wednesday.

“I have asked the OPP to conduct this investigation, and the RCMP will cooperate fully,” RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said in a press release.

The OPP have already been involved in investigations into allegations of fraud and abuse in the management of the Mounties’ $12-billion pension fund and related life and disability insurance plan.

The RCMP had previously asked the OPP to review the investigation the Ottawa City Police conducted into the matter in 2005. The OPP review concluded that the Ottawa investigation, which found evidence of wasteful spending and serious nepotism, was adequately done, and that there were no deliberate attempts by the RCMP to derail it.

The OPP review did recommend that a further investigation be undertaken to determine whether there was any criminal misconduct in the outsourcing of the insurance plan. The latest OPP investigation will probe that angle.
Scandal emerged in 2003

The pension plan scandal erupted in 2003 with allegations of mismanagement of funds, nepotism in hiring, questionable expense claims, payments to consultants who did little or no work and other contracting irregularities by civilian members of the police force administering the plans between 2000 and 2003.

The scandal has been the source of several investigations. After Ottawa police released their findings, Auditor General Sheila Fraser launched her own investigation in 2006 and found millions of dollars in inappropriate charges to the pension and insurance plans.

The federal government also asked an independent investigator, Toronto lawyer David Brown, to review the case. He released a scathing report in June 2007, declaring that the culture and management of the RCMP was “horribly broken.” He noted that whistleblowers within the force had come forward to complain of wrongdoing, only to be punished for their efforts.

Brown, in a second report released in December, recommended the RCMP be completely overhauled and turned into an entity separate from the federal government overseen by a civilian board of managers.

At a news conference slated for Thursday morning, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day is expected to appoint a group that would be tasked with overseeing the sweeping changes to the RCMP that Brown recommended.