You Won't Out Why From Comrade Miller

Why is the city so tight-lipped about fraudsters?
March 03, 2009 Royson James

News that nine city employees have been fired for filing fraudulent benefits claims will only fuel talk-radio and water-cooler chatter that is already coloured by the stereotype of the "lazy and pampered" government worker.
This follows other news stories – reasonably but incorrectly gleaned from a city auditor's report – that said the auditor had uncovered a parking ticket-fixing scam after 500 tickets were withdrawn for one individual.
Turns out fraud is not to blame. Smart people took advantage of a legal loophole, since closed. Still, enough other concerns exist to sustain the perception that our public servants are overpaid, underworked fraudsters.
By and large, government workers I've encountered are hard-working, dedicated and committed citizens with an amazing passion for their city. Citizens are often jealous of the great benefits civic workers and their unions have wrung from city hall paymasters, the politicians. Is one in 10 the poster child for the lazy worker? Yes – if that is the ratio at your own workplace. We drink the same water, go to the same schools and receive the same morality lessons at our places of worship.
So, what to make of the nine who were busted recently and thrown under the bus yesterday?
"I want Torontonians to be assured that 99.9 per cent are working extremely hard every day in the public interest and not in their own interest," Mayor David Miller said at a news conference yesterday. He also wanted you to know that the termination of the nine proves the system is working. Defraud the public and you will be busted. Maybe. MORE