Taxpayers ripped off for 600Gs
Toronto taxpayers were ripped off for nearly $600,000 last year by unscrupulous municipal employees and private companies working for City Hall.
The city’s auditor general, Jeffrey Griffiths, released his annual report on the eight-year-old fraud and waste hotline Thursday, which saw a 9% increase in complaints in 2009 over the year before.
But that’s not an indication that fraud at City Hall is on the rise, according to the chairman of the city’s audit committee.
“It’s increased just about every year since we started it, but it’s not that there’s more crime or anything funny going on, it’s that more people feel comfortable with the hotline and have increased confidence in it,” Councillor Doug Holyday said.
The hotline, which includes an online component, identified $590,000 in lost revenue for the city, less than $2,000 of which has been recovered.
But in his report, Griffiths suggests that amount will increase this year as the city and the courts follow up on the fraud and theft.
Of the 677 complaints fielded by the auditor in 2009, 18% were substantiated in whole or in part and discipline was meted out in 23 cases.
The fraud and skulduggery rooted out last year by Griffiths’ office includes: Theft of admission fees at a city facility, employees using city equipment for personal use, a dental office filing fake claims to the city’s benefits carrier, and nine employees defrauding the city’s insurance provider for $180,000.
In some cases, Griffiths notes, the employees were arrested and convicted.
In others, they were simply canned.
“I think we have to be firm and swift in meting out justice to those people who do these things to the taxpayer. I don’t think there’s any excuse for it whatsoever,” Holyday said. “People who are going to cheat and steal from the taxpayer should all lose their jobs as soon as they’re found guilty,” he said.
“The folks who do these things should know that there are severe penalties and it won’t take long to be imposed,” he added. “That’s one of the best things we can do to try to stop some of this.”
The auditor’s report will be tabled at next Friday’s audit committee, which will also look at how to stop bleeding $18 million a year in cancelled parking tickets.
In a separate report, Griffiths suggests 15% of the 2.9 million parking tickets handed out in Toronto each year are cancelled either because the driver speeds off before the ticket is issued, or the parking perp doesn’t have Ontario plates, and can’t be tracked down.
The ticket issue isn’t just about the money, Holyday said, “though if ever there was a group who needed the money, it’s us.
“But it’s also a matter of fairness. If we don’t pursue these tickets to the best of our ability, it isn’t fair to those people who admit that they made a mistake and pay the fine,” he said. “If other guys are doing the same thing (parking illegally) and getting away without paying, that’s not fair.”
According to Griffiths, as of December 2008 there were 3.4 million outstanding parking tickets, which equals about $103 million in unpaid fines.
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