Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star
Accusations of cover-up and wild contradictions between high-level RCMP officers over mismanaged pension funds are hurting the Mounties’ image, admits the acting RCMP Commissioner Bev Busson.
But Busson told a parliamentary committee yesterday a lot of the bitterness playing out in public is the result of conflicts that could have been avoided had senior RCMP managers addressed concerns of whistle-blowers and investigators early on.
“I believe the issue has become an issue of conflict between individuals and people having been treated badly,” said Busson.
“Most organizations have conflict at one time or another, but these need to be facilitated. In the right and proper forum when people find issues that need to be dealt with, that’s a very healthy thing. But if it’s not dealt with properly it becomes quite unhealthy quite quickly,” she added.
Busson, in her second appearance before the public accounts committee, said she has since acted to get to the bottom of the pension saga and will order all Mounties to fully co-operate with the federal investigator, David Brown, appointed to review it.
“I don’t think we have the full picture yet. That’s why we have Mr. Brown’s inquiry.”
But Busson said she cannot force people to co-operate if they are not legally required to.
The Commons committee is probing accusations of fraud and abuse in the management of the RCMP’s $12 billion pension fund and the $30 billion group insurance and benefits fund.
Several uniformed Mounties allege there was criminal wrongdoing during 2000-2003 when the force was trying to modernize – through outsourcing – the administration of the pension and insurance funds. Worse, they claim, there were deliberate attempts by senior Mounties, right up to the former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, to stonewall efforts to investigate those allegations.
Because of the shocking claims the senior ranks protected one another, Busson says she has called for more internal reviews and asked the RCMP’s own ethics adviser to notify employees to come forward with complaints and concerns, “past and present.”
But Busson was forced to admit that her own deputy commissioner of human resources, Barbara George, had failed to reveal her own role in the pension affair.
Busson admitted to unknowingly providing to MPs an incomplete picture of how a lead investigator, Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell, was yanked off the criminal probe into the administration of members’ pension and insurance funds.
George is now being investigated internally for her role in that.
Later, Busson told reporters, the damage to the force in the public’s mind is “short term. I think at the end of the day this is an anomaly. I think that’s why people are so surprised. In hindsight, if it was dealt with quicker and with more energy we wouldn’t be in this situation now.”
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