The public sector is the only area where the unions still have a lot of power so the government is in a bad place. You'll notice these commercials with horrible acting that are airing paid for by CUPE trying to convince Canadians that we need a big public sector.

Look at even the big scandals like Radwanski and more recently the Ontario medical records CEO. They get a cushy job making way too much and then they steal a few hundred thousand and no one goes to jail or even is required to pay back the money.

The CRA stuff looks bad because it is CRA and the type of information they have but the reality is that the people accessing the internet were most likely doing nothing nefarious but rather just bored at work and looking to kill time. The issue is that these people have jobs where they do nothing all day.

Unfortunately allegations such as these are much more common than we would like to hope or to believe.

If such incidents occur in the private sector quite often they are made public. But in the public sector they are kept quiet. And when we do learn of the incidents it is rare to learn the name of the offender. Why? Because the powers that be often believe that to identify the offender would be a breach of their confidentiality.

When you're given a blank check you might as well use it I guess.

There is one smaller government department that has six people on staff to maintain the website and the info while not ten years out of date also does not change or get updated enough to warrant six people -- all of whom make over $80k and some who make $100k.

Hey Millie...
that bothers me then...

I was chatting with average_joe..
I thought that a current source of Canadian Banks would be on the government of Canada website. He pointed out that there is a completely current list on the Canadian Bankers association's site..

The govt of Canada websites info was 10 years old....

That really bothers me, in that, Government of Canada info should be the source for Banks, Insurance companies etc.... they should be THE credible source.

That is pretty standard for the public service. People who don't live in the Capital Region have no idea how bad it is but the public service is basically just a form of welfare. The vast majority of the day is spent surfing the internet. If we replaced the entire public service with people who actually did work we could shrink it by more than half without any service loss. CRA is actually the least bad but the only reason the employees there get caught is because of security. If there was an audit / surveillance program at say HRDC and the results were revealed to the rest of Canada it would be beyond shocking.

Hey Alan,

wow... somebody needs to keep an eye on tax payers money going out the window...

Wait!! that's the CRA that's suppposed to be keeping an eye on tax payers money.!!

Misconduct Claims Dog Canada Revenue Agency Staff :CRA SOTW

Misconduct claims dog Canada Revenue Agency staff
By PETER ZIMONJIC, NATIONAL BUREAU

The civil servants tasked with ensuring Canadians pay their taxes are being investigated by their own department for everything from accessing child porn at work to bribery, harassment and fraud.

Documents released through Access to Information reveal hundreds of these investigations have been carried out on Canada Revenue Agency staff over a three-year period after evidence of misconduct emerged.

"All CRA employees are subject to a strict standard of conduct, which is clearly defined in the agency's code of ethics and conduct," said Philippe Brideau, CRA spokesman.

"The CRA does not tolerate behaviour that contravenes this code and takes appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination, to enforce our strict standards of conduct for employees."

COMPUTER MISUSE

The most regular offence seems to be the misuse of CRA computers for sending e-mail and surfing the Internet. The CRA conducted 91 investigations into these offences in 2005-06, 102 in 2006-07 and 98 in 2007-08.

The second highest offence is the unauthorized accessing of personal tax information by CRA staff, of which there are between 23 and 33 cases a year going back to 2005-06.

The documents, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin, don't say why staff were accessing the private information of taxpayers, but they do reveal several more serious offences.

Between 2005-06 and 2007-08, the CRA investigated 17 allegations of security breaches by CRA staff and 14 cases where CRA staff falsified, forged or suppressed documents.

The CRA also investigated 15 cases of fraud, an offence that includes employees approving unwarranted tax refunds and benefits.

More alarmingly, there have been three cases of "criminal activity on an electronic network." That can include accessing child pornography or using CRA computers to sell contraband tobacco.

STOLEN LAPTOPS

Over the same time period there were 12 investigations of employees for the suspected theft of money, computers or memory sticks from CRA offices.

One laptop can contain tens of thousands of individuals' tax records, prompting questions about the safety of personal information.

"All CRA laptops are protected using CRA-approved encryption and CRA systems are designed to record employees' accesses to taxpayer information," Brideau said.

The same documents also reveal 26 investigations into staff for the improper disclosure of taxpayer information to those not authorized to receive it.

The CRA employs almost 45,000 people.

PETER.ZIMONJIC@SUNMEDIA.CA

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Miss a Tax Tale Miss a lot!
Visit the CRA SOTW Library at http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com

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Alan Baggett – Tax Collector’s Bible