ottawa police begin criminal investigation into alleged kickback-for-rent scheme
a city of ottawa audit found that two employees had agreed to landlords' artificially inflated rents in return for kickback payments.
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ottawa police service.
jean levac
/
postmedia
ottawa police have confirmed that they have launched an investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving two city employees and several ottawa landlords. ottawa’s auditor general, nathalie gougeon, briefed councillors on the city’s audit committee about her investigation on monday, dec. 2, and city staff said they were to meet with police that afternoon.
“the ottawa police service was contacted by the office of the auditor general about this matter and will be commencing a police investigation,” julie kavanagh, assistant manager for media relations for the ottawa police service, said in an email dec. 5. she said there would be no further comment on the investigation while it was ongoing.
the audit found that two city employees, members of the same family, had agreed to landlords’ artificially inflated rents in return for kickback payments from the landlords. one employee was fired and the second agreed to resign. the employees were caseworkers who helped administer a government-funded program for families in need of housing. in one case, the landlord was charging rent that was 63 per cent higher than the going market rate for the area.
gougeon’s investigation found the fraudulent rental agreements began in october 2023. the employees began receiving kickbacks in january. the payments totalled $22,000 between january and november.
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the scheme involved three individual landlords and two corporations, all of which were overseen by one individual landlord.
gougeon also found that the city employees did not disclose that they had a previous relationship with the landlord — a violation of the city’s code of conduct — and that they started a moving company that profited from the rental agreements, also in violation of the code.
the city said it was stepping up training of employees on the code of conduct and improving oversight of the housing program.
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correction: auditor-general nathalie gougeon delivered her report to the city’s audit committee. incorrect information appeared in an earlier version of this story.
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