The Ombudsman says BC’s public service has ignored its own hiring rules

An ombudsman’s report found that the British Columbia Public Service Agency violated its own policy prohibiting the employment of government officials dozens of times over a 10-year period.

Jay Chalke said Monday that between 2013 and 2023, 64 jobs that were intended to help advance public servants’ careers were wrongly given to government appointees.

In a report detailing the practice, Chalke’s office found “systemic mismanagement” at the BC Public Service Agency that allowed current government officials to apply for temporary positions despite a prohibitive policy.

“The Public Service Agency has a written policy that literally prohibits (board) appointees from applying for internal temporary public service positions,” Chalke said at a Monday briefing. “The stated rationale for this policy was to preserve the possibility of temporary assignments for regular public servants to support their professional development.”

Chalke said those appointed by the Order’s council “include board and tribunal members, ministerial assistants and government communications staff.”

Chalke said the 64 interim appointments were made to ineligible people previously appointed through government orders in council, depriving public officials of career development opportunities.

The investigation was launched after Chalke’s office received information from a government employee about two recruitments at the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, although the investigation found no problems in those positions.

But his office found that despite a policy preventing government appointees from applying for temporary jobs, 205 people did so between 2013 and 2023.

Chalke said awarding jobs to ineligible people constitutes an “abuse” of the agency under B.C.’s Public Interest Disclosures Act.

“This investigation uncovered conduct that caused both specific and broader harm,” he said. “In particular, over the course of ten years, 64 career public servants have unfairly lost opportunities to advance their careers.

“Missing such opportunities can impact the trajectory of your entire career,” he said.

“This behavior has undermined the public service’s commitment to the development of these workers, and the systemic acceptance of policy violations damages the British Columbia government’s reputation as a fair and principled employer,” Chalke said.

Prime Minister David Eby said Monday that the report’s findings showed an unusually small number of nominations went to ineligible candidates, but Chalke “raises some important questions that we need to address.”

“But when it comes to people’s confidence in hiring and public service and how we do it, I don’t have any concerns other than that we need to address the issue raised by the ombudsman,” Eby said on an unrelated conference news program.

The report made four recommendations, including changing procedures for selecting ineligible candidates, informing ministers in writing of the policy, contacting appointees who apply for jobs to inform them they are ineligible, and forcing the agency to publish the report compliance for the next three years.

In a letter earlier this month, Deputy Minister Deb Godfrey of the Public Services Agency told Chalke that there were “tens of thousands” of jobs available over the 10 years covered by the Ombudsman’s inquiry.

In her letter, Godfrey stated that many of the 64 appointments that breached the rules were made through a competitive process in which the most qualified candidate received the job, although she admitted that appointees should not have been allowed to apply for the job. position.

“These were not cases in which an unqualified candidate was appointed to the position,” Godfrey’s letter reads.

In the letter, it said the agency had in the recent past “worked to increase awareness” of the policy prohibiting applicants from seeking temporary public service employment, “and will build on these efforts by implementing the Ombudsman’s recommendations.”