OTTAWA — A House of Commons committee is searching for its lost integrity commissioner.
Christiane Ouimet, Canada’s former integrity commissioner, was a no-show Tuesday on Parliament Hill despite two months of efforts to get her in front of the public accounts committee to explain a devastating audit of her office.
The former commissioner has not spoken publicly about her departure since she suddenly resigned in October.
Now MPs are seeking legal advice on whether they should send Ouimet’s case to the Commons for censure, or possibly a rare Speaker’s warrant.
“There’s no doubt that we can’t leave this outstanding,” said Conservative MP Daryl Kramp.
“Non-appearance is not an option. This is not going away.”
Auditor General Sheila Fraser released a scathing report in December that concluded Ouimet bullied and berated her staff and had failed to do her job properly.
The audit found that 228 allegations of public service wrongdoing or reprisal were brought to the integrity commissioner’s office under Ouimet’s watch, and only seven were investigated.
Not a single finding of wrongdoing was issued from when the office first opened, in 2007, to Ouimet’s departure near the end of 2010.
The public accounts committee sent a series of letters and phone messages seeking Ouimet’s testimony dating back to Dec. 9.
The entreaties culminated last week when the committee issued a summons to the career bureaucrat, but a bailiff who went to Ouimet’s Ottawa home has been unable to serve her amid suggestions she may be travelling abroad.
The committee was told a young woman who identified herself as Ouimet’s niece answered the door and said Ouimet was out of the country.
When the bailiff returned later seeking a contact address or number, no one answered.
“People are toying with us,” thundered Liberal MP Jean-Claude D’Amours. “Enough is enough.”
D’Amours went on to suggest Ouimet — appointed in 2007 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Parliament’s first integrity commissioner to handle whistleblower complaints — may be following instructions.
“Is someone trying to cover something up?” he asked, without providing any evidence.
Conservative MP Andrew Saxton, the parliamentary secretary to the Treasury Board, called the accusation “ridiculous.”
“We are here to get to the bottom of this matter,” Saxton said in an interview.
“The auditor general has made a report. It’s a troubling report to me as a parliamentarian. It’s troubling to all parliamentarians because Mme. Ouimet was, in fact, appointed by all parliamentarians.”
The committee will hear from Commons law clerk Rob Walsh before deciding what to do next.
But some Conservatives see little option but to wait Ouimet out.
“The lady is obviously out of the country,” said Conservative MP Terence Young.
“She doesn’t want to be found. In some ways, it’s understandable.”
Young said the committee can’t hire an investigator and send him off to South America or Europe with a government credit card.
Added Saxton: “She can’t stay away forever.”
Among the whistleblower cases Ouimet blew off was that of military veteran Sean Bruyea, who received an apology from the government for having had his personal medical information widely circulated within the public service.
All the old whistleblower allegations are now being reviewed, Treasury Board Minister Stockwell Day said in December.