Title: Foreign Affairs workers sue department for
alleged harassment: Employees say trouble began when they questioned
overspending
Source: Ottawa Citizen, July 8, 1998, Final Edition,
p.A4
Two
Foreign Affairs employees say they have been
systematically
harassed for trying to halt lavish abuses that cost
taxpayers
billions of dollars.
John Guenette and Joanna Gualtieri have
filed a lawsuit against the
government
alleging they were emotionally abused and ostracized for
questioning
spending on the overseas accommodations enjoyed by
foreign
service officers.
The statement of claim, filed recently in
Ontario Court, says the
``culture
and environment'' of Foreign Affairs does not allow them
to do
their jobs with integrity.
``In fact, it promotes loyalty to the
department over and above all
else.''
Both Mr. Guenette and Ms. Gualtieri work for
the department's
bureau of
physical resources, which manages a $3 billion portfolio
of real
estate and other assets abroad.
The lawsuit names eight members of Foreign
Affairs, including
Minister
Lloyd Axworthy, as well as the federal attorney general.
The department, which is defending the
action, has not yet filed a
statement
with the court.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Dexter Bishop said
it was too soon to
discuss
the allegations.
``They'll be addressed in our statement of
defence, and in the
meantime
it's very difficult for me to be able to comment on the
specifics,''
he said.
The employees' claim says before July 1993,
when the bureau was
turned
into a special agency, it was largely directed by a cadre of
senior
foreign service officers ``with a fixation on securing for
themselves,
while posted abroad, grandiose and luxurious
accommodations
and lifestyles at the expense of the Canadian
taxpayer.
The abuses of governing policies were rampant.''
It alleges the ``careerism and opportunism''
have worsened in
recent
years, costing taxpayers at least $2 billion during the past
decade.
Mr. Guenette joined the bureau in 1982 with
an extensive background
in real
estate. Ms. Gualtieri, a lawyer and former property
developer,
has worked there since 1992.
The two employees claim their efforts to
work ``in an efficient,
ethical
and accountable fashion'' have prompted harassment from
supervisors
over the past six years that has made them clinically
depressed,
requiring ongoing care.
Both have been on leave since late April.
The statement says they
were
continually met with ``hostility, resistance and ridicule''
from
department members in various capitals abroad. It adds that
they took
their concerns to senior department members, their union,
the Public
Service Commission and other parties.
``All proved ineffective and/or unable to
properly redress the
issues and
damages at hand,'' the statement said.
The employees seek a minimum $36 million in
damages, the bulk of
which
would be used to establish a non-profit advocacy organization
with a
mandate to represent and protect the rights of government
employees.
The organization's role would include
lobbying for changes to
federal
employment practices, particularly those relating to matters
of
integrity, abuse of power and harassment.
The federal government says there are
already appropriate avenues
for
employees to raise concerns of mismanagement, as well as
adequate
protection for those who speak up about waste or fraud.
Copyright
Ottawa Citizen 1998 All Rights Reserved.
Title: Duo denounces lavish lifestyles Employees
claim harassment over attempts to halt diplomatic spending
Byline: Allan Thompson TORONTO STAR
Source: The Toronto Star, July 9, 1998, Final
Edition, p.A25
OTTAWA -
Public spending on housing for Canadian diplomats is
under
attack in a lawsuit by two foreign affairs department
employees,
who say they were harassed for trying to halt lavish
spending
on residences abroad.
John Guenette and Joanna Gualtieri, who work
for the operating
agency
that manages the $3 billion portfolio of residences abroad,
have filed
a suit against the government alleging they were
emotionally
abused by their superiors at the department after
complaining
about lavish spending by diplomats.
The statement of claim filed by the pair
contends that before
management
of the housing portfolio was turned over to a specialized
agency in
1993, it was directed by senior foreign service officers
and
bureaucrats ``with a fixation on securing for themselves, while
posted
abroad, grandiose and luxurious accommodations and lifestyles
at the
expense of the Canadian taxpayer.''
``The abuses of governing policies were
rampant,'' they claim.
The pair contend that such abuse has cost
the Canadian taxpayer
``at least
$2 billion'' in the last 10 years. But the statement of
claim
doesn't provide any details.
(According to the auditor- general, the
foreign affairs department
spends
about $200 million a year maintaining overseas housing for
Canadian
representatives abroad, so the entire budget for spending
in the
past decade would barely exceed $2 billion.)
In their lawsuit, the pair are seeking a
total of $6 million in
damages
for themselves and punitive damages of $30 million to be
used to
establish an advocacy organization to represent and protect
the rights
of government employees.
Dexter Bishop, a spokesperson for the
foreign affairs department,
said
yesterday that there is a limit on what he can say about the
law suit
because the foreign affairs department hasn't yet filed its
legal
response.
``We're not making any comment on the case
itself,'' Bishop said.
``With regard to the allegations that the
department squanders
money, the
truth is that the department follows governmental
regulations
and directives on spending of money for property
management
and its acquisition,'' Bishop said.
Bishop said the department is obliged to
follow very strict
guidelines,
and that all major spending must be approved by Treasury
Board.
``The contention, frankly, that public
servants manipulate the
process so
as to secure for themselves lavish accommodation abroad
is really
quite preposterous in general terms,'' Bishop said. ``But
I'm not
commenting on the case.''
Coincidentally, the auditor- general
published a detailed report
last fall
on the way the foreign affairs department handles its
housing
portfolio.
John Hitchinson, the person in the
auditor-general's office
responsible
for reviewing the foreign affairs department, said that
the study
did make some criticism of the way money is spent on
residences
abroad.
Hitchinson stressed that he is in no way
commenting on the current
lawsuit,
but he said the most recent auditor-general's report, and a
previous
study done in 1987, didn't turn up anything that he would
characterize
as a boondoggle worth hundreds of millions.
``I didn't see anything here that would
qualify as a boondoggle,''
Hitchinson
said.
In fact, the auditor-general noted that the
operating agency had
made
``significant progress'' in some areas of its property
management.
One of the auditor-general's criticisms was
that the foreign
affairs
department doesn't have an over-all maintenance plan for its
official
residences abroad.
Instead, renovations and repairs are done on
a case- by-case basis,
after an
inspection report. And in nearly half the cases reviewed by
the
auditor-general, repairs or renovations exceeded what was
outlined
in the inspection reports.
``The department has spent large amounts on
renovating and
repairing
official residences when heads of mission changed, without
clearly
establishing the requirements,'' the auditor-general
reported.
The report also criticized spending on
larger residences for the
purpose of
official entertaining. It found the more expensive
accommodation
was often not used much for that.
Copyright
The Toronto Star 1998 All Rights Reserved.
Title: WHISTLE-BLOWERS CLAIM HARASSMENT
Byline: Megan Gillis; Ottawa Sun
Two civil
servants who blew the whistle on $2 billion in
alleged
diplomatic perqs told a tribunal yesterday that they were
harassed
in retribution.
The public service staff relations board
must decide whether the
alleged
harassment and resulting depression are a workplace danger
and injury
under the Canadian Labor Code. The case was adjourned
until
August.
John Guenette and Joanna Gualtieri claim
they were abused for
questioning
"grandiose ... accommodations and lifestyles" for
diplomats
to the tune of $2 billion over a 10-year period at
taxpayers'
expense.
Safety officer Daniel Strickland testified
he found no evidence of
danger as
defined by the Canadian Labor Code.
But lawyer Charles Gibson, representing
Guenette and Gualtieri,
said:
"We're trying to break new ground. The legal question is
whether
the danger defined by the labor code applies to something
other than
a physical one."
Copyright
Toronto Sun 1998 All Rights Reserved.
Title: Medal deserved for suing federal department
Byline: Denis E. Murphy
Source: Ottawa Citizen, July 27, 1998, Final
Edition, p.A8
A medal of appreciation should be struck by
the Canadian
taxpayer
for this man. John Guenette following his $36-million suit
against
the Department of Foreign Affairs (``Foreign affairs workers
sue
department for alleged harassment,'' July 8.)
Unfortunately what will undoubtedly happen
is that he will be
vilified,
lied about and driven from his profession -- and I doubt
if anything
will change!
This harassment technique drove me from my
36-year career with the
department
in 1991. Foolishly, I believed in the internal grievance
system
which, as I ruefully learned, is not in place to protect the
individual,
but rather to protect the department.
As I pointed out to the then
Director-General of Personnel Michael
Conway,
it's not the fact that middle management can do what they do
and get
away with it; the bitter part is that they know they can! He
thought
that was ``cute!''
Good luck, Mr. Guenette -- you will need it.
Denis E. Murphy, Embrun
Copyright
Ottawa Citizen 1998 All Rights Reserved.
Title: Ottawa rejects spending abuse charges
Source: Calgary Herald, December 11, 1998, Final
Edition, p.B12
The
federal government has dug in its heels against two
public
servants who have filed a $36-million lawsuit alleging
rampant
abuse of taxpayers' dollars and relentless harassment by
their
superiors for refusing to keep quiet about it.
A federal response to the suit characterizes
the accusations as
"mischievous
and irrational" and argues any physical and emotional
distress
suffered by the two employees had nothing to do with their
treatment
by supervisors in the Foreign Affairs Department.
The statement, filed in the Ontario Court,
says the case should be
thrown out
because the allegations are unwarranted and
unsubstantiated.
The lawsuit, launched last June, charges
there have been at least
$2 billion
of unnecessary and unacceptable spending at diplomatic
facilities
abroad since 1986.
The government statement, a lengthy
point-by-point denial of the
allegations,
signals it is prepared to put up a vigorous defence if
the case
isn't dismissed before it gets to trial.
John Guenette, one of the public servants,
said he and colleague
Joanna
Gualtieri, 37, are braced for battle despite mounting legal
costs,
adding they have no shortage of evidence of wrongdoing and
are
organizing documents for court.
Guenette and Gualtieri, who are on unpaid
leave from the
department,
say they their efforts to expose abuses met a brick
wall.
Management ignored the information and "deliberately chose a
pattern of
conduct that degraded, marginalized and demeaned them,
stripping
them of their duties," they say in their statement of
claim.
The federal government replied that if the
duo suffered harm it was
caused by
their "failure or willful refusal to recognize and follow
the lines
of authority and decision-making' and "their failure or
willful
refusal to avail themselves of available avenues of
recourse."
The government rejected charges the
employees were sidelined after
they
started to make waves.
The lawsuit names the federal attorney
general, Foreign Affairs
Minister
Lloyd Axworthy and eight department officials. At a
pre-trial
hearing last month, the government failed to have the
defendants
reduced to just the attorney general.
Copyright
Calgary Herald 1998 All Rights Reserved.
Title: Condos once thought too lavish, now home to
Canadian diplomats: Foreign Affairs defends decision to spend $1.1M on spacious
units in Guatemala City
Source: Ottawa Citizen, February 14, 1999, Final
Edition, p.A3
The
apartment complex lived up to its name -- the Premiere
Club.
Spacious and secure with magnificent vistas.
Three swimming pools.
Two tennis
courts and two squash courts. A gym and a clubhouse. In
short, an
oasis within steamy, crime-infested Guatemala City.
No wonder administration personnel at the
Canadian Embassy there
recommended
purchasing three apartments -- at $255,000 U.S. each --
in the
Premiere Club in 1995 as part of the Department of Foreign
Affairs'
plan to ditch expensive, leased space in favour of buying
properties
in various capitals.
It looked like a done deal until an official
from Ottawa arrived on
the scene
in early 1995.
Joanna Gualtieri, a portfolio manager in
Foreign Affairs' Bureau of
Physical
Resources, balked after seeing the complex, which was still
under
construction, and studying floorplans.
In a Jan. 23, 1995, memo to her Ottawa boss
Frank Townson and
embassy
administrators, she said the apartments were too large and
extravagant
and that more suitable, secure and less costly housing
was
available.
``It appears the Premiere Club is, in fact, marketing
a lifestyle
-- one
that will attract and appeal to wealthy, affluent
Guatemalans,''
she wrote.
``Suffice to say that the issue is not
whether the units adequately
meet our
requirement but, rather, whether the units simply exceed
what could
reasonably be defended as appropriate housing.''
Within days of her memo arriving in Ottawa,
the Premiere Club
purchases
were abandoned and Ms. Gualtieri was instructed to find
more
suitable, cost-effective housing.
She identified six properties, a mix of houses
and apartment units,
that would
meet the embassy's requirements. One house was eventually
purchased
for $168,000 U.S., but no action was taken on the other
suggestions,
all with pricetags lower than the Premiere Club.
Instead, 26 months after rejecting the
Premiere Club as too lavish,
the
government bought three in March 1997 for almost $1.1 million
Cdn.
Foreign Affairs defends the Guatemala
purchases, but offers no
direct
explanation as to why units deemed too lavish in 1995 were
acceptable
in 1997.
James Fox, who was ambassador to Guatemala
when the purchases were
aborted,
refuses comment, although the documents show he favoured
searching
for more reasonable accommodation. Daniel Livermore,
ambassador
when the purchases were made, has also declined public
comment.
Department spokesman Valerie Noftle says the
three units were
considered
a good buy and a good investment because their value on
the market
has increased steadily in the last two years.
She says they provide secure housing with
protected outdoor space
in a
high-crime city. Security guards are part of the gated complex,
meaning
the government doesn't have to provide and finance 24-hour
guards,
she adds.
Ms. Noftle says the annual cost of housing
diplomats in Guatemala
has been
reduced to $112,000 a year from $325,000 a year since 1995
because
there are fewer rental properties and lower security costs.
She also says the apartments conform to
Treasury Board guidelines;
documents
show they do not. A 1995 memo from Christal Becker, an
architect
in the Bureau of Physical Resources, put the size of the
apartments
at 186 square metres, at least 40 square metres larger
than
Treasury Board provisions for a unit that contains three
bedrooms
and a den, or family room.
The documents show that soon after the
Premiere Club purchases were
cancelled
early in January 1995, Ambassador Fox, who according to
Ms.
Gualtieri's notes took a keen interest in the project, was told
by Mr.
Townson that he could proceed with the purchase of at least
four units
identified by Ms. Gualtieri.
But the documents also indicate some
Guatemala-based diplomats were
upset at
the last-minute decision to ditch the Premiere apartments
in favour
of less spacious, cheaper options in less convenient and
less
secure zones.
A March 2, 1995, memo from Christine
Brassard, administration
officer at
the embassy, suggests the degree of the unhappiness after
the
Premiere purchases were aborted.
She wrote that Ms. Gualtieri had essentially
pulled the plug on the
Premiere
Club purchases after only ``three working days in the
country.''
Ms. Brassard concludes Ms. Gualtieri and
headquarters had put price
above
other considerations, including security, access to
recreational
and other facilities and investment value.
In a Telex to Mr. Fox, Mr. Townson
acknowledged the staff's concern
about a
``perceived downgrading in the accommodation being
provided.''
But he added; ``The fiscal realities with which the
government
is faced demand that every effort be made to reduce
expenditures
wherever possible.''
Ms. Gualtieri's notes say Mr. Fox was
dealing with a ``full-fledged
mutiny''
by Canadian staff unhappy with the new housing proposals
and that
he was not getting the support and direction he wanted from
Ottawa.
On March 8, Ms. Gualtieri says Mr. Fox told
her he was at the ``end
of how far
he will go'' with the housing project, that he had
``stuck
his head (out) and got it cut off.''
Part of the problem, the documents indicate,
was confusion over who
had final
authority to order the purchases, the ambassador or the
bureaucrats
in Ottawa.
In the end, all purchases were put on hold,
pending development of
a new
strategy.
The new strategy -- 26 months later --
turned out to be purchasing
the
once-rejected Premiere Club apartments.
Copyright
Ottawa Citizen 1999 All Rights Reserved.
Title: Government whistleblowers move closer to
trial
Source: The Ottawa Citizen, July 15, 1999, Final
Edition, p.D8
A
$36-million lawsuit by two Department of Foreign Affairs
employees
has moved a step closer to trial.
John Guenette and Joanna Gualtieri filed a
lawsuit last year
against
the federal government , alleging they were emotionally
abused and
ostracized for questioning spending on the overseas
accommodations
enjoyed by foreign service officers.
The statement of claim said the culture and
environment at Foreign
Affairs
did not allow them to do their jobs with integrity.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendant
were involved in
examinations
for discovery last week.
Charles Gibson, lawyer for Mr. Guenette and
Ms. Guarltieri, said Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd xworthy could be a witness.
However, government lawyer Linda Wall said it is unlikely
Mr.
Axworthy will appear because he had little to do with the
situation.
``He doesn't even know these people,'' she said.
Copyright
Ottawa Citizen 1999 All Rights Reserved.
Title: Spin doctors have all the 'answers': From
'good' stories to 'no comment,' foreign affairs ready
Spin
doctors in Ottawa have prepared an extensive
communications
strategy to save the department of foreign affairs
from
"embarrassment" caused by claims of diplomats living the high
life.
The strategy was developed to counter the
negative publicity
surrounding
the housing of overseas staff at Canadian diplomatic
missions,
documents obtained by The Province show.
Admitting that some parts of the allegations
by department
employee,
Joanna Gualtieri have been found to be true, the
backgrounder
to the strategy paper reads ". . . the evidence may be
quite
embarrassing to the department since it concerns what these
employees
have portrayed as a gross neglect and mismanagement of
taxpayer
money in the selection of accommodation for employees
abroad".
Two federal bureaucrats familiar with
government communications
said the
strategy outline, prepared late last year, would have cost
tens of
thousands of dollars to prepare.
Using surveys to predict public response to
the issue, one of the
draft
documents for the strategy admits that even if the department
of foreign
affairs and international trade presents extremely
positive
evidence about its own decisions in this case, the public
may not
trust the defence.
Among other things, the communications
strategy suggests:
- Targeting specific journalists to dispel
myths about diplomats
living the
high life.
- Seizing opportunities to communicate good
news stories about
spending
on diplomacy.
- Bringing attention to the opening of
single-person diplomatic
missions
to exhibit low-cost postings.
- Hiring a writer and photographer to
interview civil servants
abroad to
show the challenges and living conditions in the chance a
national
newspaper may pick it up and help temper public
misconceptions.
- Preparing a list of answers for ministers
and department
bureaucrats
in the event of media scrums. The list of responses
several
times suggests the widely used "we cannot comment because
the case
is before the courts."
- Providing low-key responses to the media
which entails the
department's
media relations office answering questions
"superficially"
using prepared responses and refusing access to
staff who
are directly involved.
The communications strategy also prepared an
extensive
question-and-answer
brief for the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd
Axworthy,
in the event the opposition Reform Party raised the issue
in the
House of Commons. Axworthy has not had the chance to use it
yet.
Copyright
The Province (Vancouver) 1999 All Rights Reserved.