OTTAWA — A federal worker who was given a corporate credit card ended up losing her job after racking up personal purchases that left the government on the hook for a $24,000 credit card bill.
The employee, known only by the pseudonym Julie in an internal inspection report, "ignored all communications" when officials tried to nudge her into paying off the balance.
Her case is just one of a handful sent to senior officials at Public Services and Procurement Canada, offering a glimpse at questionable practices by four civil servants, two of whom ended up losing their jobs: Julie and a man whose pseudonym is Vincent.
Julie was given the credit card to cover expenses while she was on assignment away from home with another organization. Neither the location nor the organization are listed in the documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
The investigation found Julie made three payments on the card worth a total of about $18,000 — a far cry from the total charges of $41,150. Of that, $14,150 was for 127 personal expenses, none of which are described in the reports.
Even after the $18,000 worth of payments, she continued to make personal purchases and "did not make a plan to repay the card," the report said.
In the end, the federal government had to pay the outstanding balance of $23,150. Once confronted with the investigation report, Julie opted to cover the costs by having her salary clawed back.
A disciplinary council decided that she should be terminated for her misspending ways.
Vincent, meanwhile, lost his job after security cameras caught him repeatedly filling his personal vehicle with taxpayer-purchased gasoline — intended solely for use in federally owned lawn mowers and pickup trucks.
The total value of the gasoline was between $695 to $907, investigators wrote.
When confronted about the matter, Vincent appears to have added fuel to the fire by suggesting the missing gas was the result of government vehicles being left to idle for too long.
Investigators didn't buy his excuse, and said the gas thefts "were not isolated incidents committed on impulse," and recommended Vincent be fired.
That's not to say they didn't look into his claims, however.
The documents show investigators interviewed co-workers to figure out how long the vehicles are typically left to idle, then turned to the toxic emissions research group at Environment and Climate Change Canada to calculate fuel usage per each minute of idling.
Their calculations showed that the idling of vehicle or small engines like those in lawn mowers couldn't account for the missing gasoline.
"There is no circumstantial or contextual information to validate or to support Vincent's claims regarding his gasoline consumption concerns or habits," the investigators wrote.
"Testimonial evidence actually points in another direction."
