A former senior executive at the Public Health Agency of Canada regularly screamed at staff and subjected them to "physical displays of anger," including slamming desks and throwing papers, according to a report by the federal government's public-sector integrity commissioner.
But the frequent tirades and fits of rage did not lead to the executive being fired – instead, the executive left the public-health agency before the investigation was finished and moved to another government job, where new bosses have promised closer monitoring.
The integrity commissioner's report, tabled Thursday in Parliament, does not name the executive or even specify gender. Instead, the report uses the generic masculine pronoun "he" throughout to "protect the identity of those concerned."
"Despite the specific nature of these findings, I did not want this to be dismissed as an isolated case," Joe Friday, the public-sector integrity commissioner, told reporters after releasing his report. "I think naming the individual would, in my view, increase the risk of this happening."
Mr. Friday, whose office investigates allegations of wrongdoing in the federal bureaucracy, began his probe of the executive's behaviour in May, 2014, after receiving a complaint from an anonymous whistleblower.
The executive was, at the time, an acting director-general at the Public Health Agency of Canada, the agency that handles public-health emergencies and responds to infectious-disease outbreaks.
Mr. Friday's office interviewed more than 40 witnesses over nearly three years, including character witnesses put forward by the executive in question.
Even those character witnesses provided first-hand testimony of the executive's "outbursts of anger."
"Several witnesses stated that the executive displayed angry body language, including slamming hands down on the desk, throwing files or paper, leaping upright and leaning forward towards staff in an angry and aggressive posture," the report said.
The executive regularly belittled subordinates, then apologized for the behaviour and promised to do better. But the behaviour did not improve, the report found.
"The executive was described as being volatile at meetings, with staff not knowing when the next 'explosion' would be. This behaviour was often followed by apologies. Many witnesses reported being reduced to tears or having witnessed others crying as a result of the executive's actions."
The executive "vigorously denied" all the accusations, the report said.
In a call with reporters Thursday, Mr. Friday said the chief executive officer of the government department where the unnamed executive now works has agreed to discipline the executive, but he did not say what that discipline would entail.
There have been no new complaints about the executive's behaviour, Mr. Friday added. He declined to say where the former PHAC executive works now, or whether the person still holds a senior job in the public service.
The Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner was established in 2007 to provide a mechanism for whistle-blowers to confidentially disclose wrongdoing in the federal bureaucracy.
The office has tabled 12 reports with Parliament, including five that have identified wrongdoers by name.
A spokeswoman for the office could not say how much the nearly three-year investigation into the former PHAC executive cost.
The money to conduct the probe and write the report came from within the office's budget, she said.
Kelly Grant