2000 October Report of the Auditor General of Canada

October 2000 Report—Chapter 12

Exhibit 12.8—Hypothetical Case Studies of Values and Ethics Dilemmas in the Workplace

Box seats. You are invited by a private sector company to join other departmental personnel in a corporate "box" at a local National Hockey League arena for a game in the Stanley Cup playoffs. You reflect that the cost of these boxes may average to about $100 or more per person in the regular season, but often exceed $1,000 in the playoffs. What should you do?

Request for lenient inspection. You are inspecting the books of a manufacturer that has violated the law. At noon you break for lunch and go to a restaurant. The company manager joins you there and asks you to be lenient regarding the manufacturer's practices and subtly suggests that he could offer you a very good deal on a computer. At the end of the meal, the manager offers to pay for your lunch. What should you do?

Employment offers. You are in a position to recommend and approve giving a contract to a firm that has made overtures to hire you. What should you do?

Missing supplies. You are the supply officer for a peacekeeping mission. On the day that a supply arrives, you are asked to sign for a quantity of 100 of a particular item, when only 70 are in the box. Thirty have been skimmed off as the cost of doing business in this particular country. No signature, no delivery. You need the item badly. What should you do?

Statement of qualifications. You have to prepare a statement of qualifications for a competition and are under pressure from management to write it narrowly so as to favour a particular candidate or to screen out as many candidates as possible in order to speed up the process. What should you do?

Policy advice. A director has prepared a policy statement that you feel contains gross errors and is in some respects dishonest. In spite of staff efforts to correct the mistakes, he continues to push through the policy statement. The easy approach is to keep quiet and implement the new policy; the difficult one is to challenge the accuracy of the document. However, there is no appropriate method to criticize the policy. What should you do?

Building upgrades. Government architects and engineers judge that there is a need for upgrading government-owned buildings. They have identified an opportunity to address the problem during retrofits but were told by financial officers that the funds were not available. They are concerned that the failure to act could make them professionally liable and could embarrass the government should major health problems or injuries occur. What should they do?

Insufficient budget. You are on the review board for a major equipment acquisition project. The project manager is suggesting that the project budget is insufficient to get all the requested equipment, unless auxiliary components are removed from the main project package. You know that once the purchase is decided, the department will have no choice but to find additional funding for the auxiliary components. What should you do?

Managing immigration risks. Your supervisor instructs you to waive all interviews for immigrant applicants listing occupations as either engineers or systems analysts. He believes that the majority of applicants will be accepted, and selection interviews will be of little value. Past experience has shown you that many cases could be problematic. You are reluctant to advise your supervisor because you know that any challenge to his authority will be reflected in your appraisal. What should you do?

Ministerial decisions. In a recent press release, the minister is quoted as saying that a decision will result in significant savings. As a member of the project team, you know this is not quite true. The political interest and involvement in the project was high. To create the savings will require that other projects may have to be delayed or forgone. What should you do?

Peacekeeping situations. You are a platoon commander in a country plagued with sectarian violence and power struggles between the government and rebel factions. Your platoon is ordered to a remote area to evacuate Canadian civilian aid workers from a dangerous situation. At the location, you find that there are many other civilians who are at risk. What should you do?

Source: Ethics courses of PWGSC, National Defence and CIC.