Wrongdoing hotline burns up with misplaced calls

Sudbury got more than it bargained for with its year-old whistleblower system.

Last June, the city started up a wrongdoing hotline.The hotline is a way for citizens, employees and contractors to report things that are illegal, dishonest, wasteful or a deliberate violation of city policy.

Anew report from the city's auditor general shows a higher than anticipated volume of calls, and suggests this is because there was "confusion about the purpose" of the hotline.

The city received 80 calls during the first 6 months of the hotline, butonly 10 per cent actually required any further investigation.

System's roll-outsource of confusion

Ron Foster, the city's auditor general, says 10 per cent is normal compared to other cities with wrongdoing hotlines. The confusion, however, is probably due to the way the service was rolled out.

"The community wanted to participate, staff wanted to participate, and they wanted it to cover not only staff and services, but also members of council," said Foster.

"With that three-pronged process, you're bound to get confusion about the purpose of the hotline and some inefficiencies."

Hello, 311?

Many of the callers were referred to bylaw services, 311 or their calls had nothing to do with city services.That includes issues such as"a lack of signs to indicate road painting," and "unacceptable wait times at a road construction site."

The calls that did lead to investigation and action addressed issues like the abuse of bus drivers by the public, andthe need for semi-annual public reports on the hotline itself.

Foster says there are plans to improve communication on the purpose of the hotline. This report is the firstsemi-annual report on the hotline.