The Conservative Party and the NDP call on Canadian Revenue Agency Commissioner Bob Hamilton to testify before a parliamentary committee after a massive leak of sensitive internal documents revealed numerous allegations of wrongdoing in the CRA department responsible for ensuring multinational companies pay appropriate levels of Canadian tax.
Government documents, which were submitted to a federal court case late last year, reveal the names of several whistleblowers who have made a wide range of allegations within the agency, as well as the names of senior CRA officials who have been the subject of of internal complaints. The documents include a report for 2021 by an external team of psychological counselors, which found that half of the employees in the department say they have been victims of harassment, harassment or intimidation.
The documents suggest that at least part of the tension in the division is due to disagreements over the agency’s work on a specific multimillion-dollar tax deal reached with a multinational company. The identity of the company in question has been repeatedly edited in the documents.
Some employees of the department do not agree with the tax agreement, as they see it as a “nice” deal for the company and opposed the way it was approved, the records show. Employees who believe the department is under undue pressure to approve the agreement have filed internal complaints.
The documents refer to disturbances in the service department of the competent authorities of the CRA, which is part of the directorate for international and large business of the agency. CASD works with international companies operating in Canada to determine their Canadian tax liabilities.
Former head of the department Donna O’Connor has already violated recruitment rules and failed to set the appropriate leadership tone, according to a December 2019 report prepared by the CRA’s Department of Home Affairs and Fraud Control and filed as part of a court hearing. case. The CRA report said Ms O’Connor told a CRA investigator that her “unit was corrupt” but did not give details. Ms O’Connor also said she was trying to clear up bad practices, according to the report.
Canadian Revenue Agency staff complain of harassment and harassment, the report found
During a meeting of the Finance Committee in the House of Commons on Monday, Conservative MP Dan Albas issued a notification of a proposal urging Mr Hamilton to appear and explain the issues raised in the documents. The Commission can vote on the issue as early as Tuesday.
Mr Albas told The Globe and Mail after the meeting that the liberal government often boasted that it was working hard on the world stage to ensure that large companies paid their fair share of taxes. But he noted that the documents suggest that some in the CRA disagree with the way such files are processed.
“This is one of the reasons why I would like the Commissioner to stand before the committee so that he can present his case on what is happening in the CRA under his supervision,” Mr Albas said.
NDP financial critic Daniel Blakey said he would support the Conservatives’ proposal, which called on Mr Hamilton to appear. He noted that the CRA has long been accused by critics of doing a bad job of enforcing tax rules for rich people and large corporations.
“So when you combine that with these stories of a broken culture that even people in the CRA call corrupt, it’s very worrying,” he said.
Liberal and Quebec lawmakers did not say Monday whether they would vote on the proposal, which would require the support of a majority of members of the committee to continue.
CRA spokesman Etienne Biram said in a statement Monday that allegations related to the particular tax deal had been reviewed by the CRA’s internal fraud department and a third-party tax expert.
While the complaints in the documents of the Federal Court claim that a “nice deal” was concluded in 2019, the investigation found that the conditions of [agreement] in fact, they were favorable to the CRA and did not provide any form of preferential treatment, ”Mr Biram said in an email. He also said allegations that the deal was provided without analysis and that employees were forced to resign were considered unfounded.
Mr Biram said the CRA took allegations of misconduct seriously, but added that it was difficult for the agency to respond to allegations before the Federal Court. He also noted that the Federal Court case is for two other allegations that are not related to the tax deal.
The Federal Court case began in September 2021, when two CRA employees asked the court to reconsider the decision of Public Securities Commissioner Joe Friday to suspend the investigation of their allegations of wrongdoing in the CRA. The commissioner explained in letters to staff that he believed his office should not investigate as the agency was already dealing with the matter.
Documents related to the commissioner’s investigation, which began in 2020, have been submitted to the court, making them public.
The commissioner’s office told The Globe last week that the chief prosecutor had been contacted on behalf of the CRA on April 12 and had been informed that some of the documents contained sensitive information. On April 19, the commissioner’s office wrote to the Federal Court, stating that it intended to replace its court files with new versions of documents that would edit “inappropriate” information from third parties, including the names of the people who made the accusations and the names of those charged.
The Conservative Party has asked Privacy Commissioner Daniel Terrier to launch an investigation into the release of “sensitive information about whistleblowers” after Blacklock’s Reporter wrote about the case last month.
Court documents show that the Office of the Commissioner for Integrity has investigated a wide range of allegations made by the two CRA officers and found that some require further review and others do not.
In a letter dated 21 July 2020 from Mr Friday to one of the officials, the Commissioner said that he would investigate some but not all of the allegations. Mr Friday agreed to investigate concerns about the department’s travel costs and the possibility of a “toxic” work environment.
But Mr Friday’s letter said he would not investigate a charge related to the particular tax transaction, in part because his office is not authorized to review information that is a privilege between a lawyer and a client.
For subscribers: Get outstanding political news and analysis by signing up for Political briefing.
Add Comment