Canadian civil servant sacked over fabricated CVs
A civil servant in Canada lost her job after lying on her CV for various internal job applications, the Canadian Press (CP) news agency has reported.
An internal government briefing note seen by CP says the employee “provided false information” about her credentials on five applications and misrepresented her work experience on three of those applications.
The briefing note to the deputy minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada says managers became suspicious after noticing some irregularities in the woman’s job applications, concerning “the depth and breadth” of her experience before and after she joined the department. The briefing note says her work history “appeared contradictory.”
The Public Service Commission, which acts as a watchdog over recruitment in Canada’s civil service, made the decision to dismiss the official, according to the note dated 17 April this year.
The bureaucrat’s name, the details of the investigation and what jobs she held were redacted from the internal note, which was obtained by CP under the Access to Information Act.
CP reports that the woman will need the commission’s approval to seek full-time employment in the federal government for the next three years. And if she lands a part-time job or finds work through one of the government’s student programmes, the commission plans to send her supervisor a letter outlining the findings of their fraud investigation.
The incident is one of a number of fraud cases dealt with by the federal public service each year. In 2013-14, there were 79 allegations of fraud out of 72,000 hires and job changes. The Public Service Commission noted in its most recent annual report that fraud continued “to be of concern.”
Fraud cases include falsifying documents such as diplomas; misrepresentation of work experience; education or professional credentials; cheating during tests; and not disclosing a personal relationship with someone involved in making a hiring decision.
In the last 14 months, the commission says it has completed 94 fraud investigations, including investigations that were opened before April 2014. Of those investigations completed, 66 found evidence of fraud and 28 were deemed to be unfounded.
The commission says it still has 49 investigations ongoing.
About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
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