Investigation Summary

Section 69 – Founded – Falsification of Second Language Evaluation results

Authority: This investigation was conducted under section 69 of the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) S.C. 2003, c. 22, par. 12 and 13.

Issue: The purpose of the investigation was to determine whether a candidate committed fraud in an appointment process by submitting falsified Second Language Evaluation results for the process in question.

Conclusions: The Public Service Commission (PSC) concluded that the applicant committed fraud pursuant to section 69 of the PSEA by intentionally submitting Second Language Evaluation results that he had changed in the appointment process in question.

Facts: The department conducted an advertised internal appointment process to staff Emergency Response Advisor positions with a CCC/CCC linguistic profile. The department asked the candidate to confirm the official language in which he was most comfortable in order to redo both SLE tests on which he scored a “B”. The candidate sent the language test results by email to the department, indicating that he had scored a “C” on the three tests. When the department checked the results submitted by the applicant against the results in the PSC Personnel Psychology Centre (PPC) database, the results were different. Confirmation of the test results indicates that the applicant had a linguistic profile of BBB and not CCC as indicated in the document he sent to the department.

During the investigation, the candidate admitted that he changed the document containing the results that the PPC had sent him when he had been evaluated a few years earlier. He indicated that when he submitted his application for the process in question, his language evaluation results were set to expire soon and he had asked his supervisor to have him evaluated. He said that he was convinced he could meet the linguistic requirements of the position if he were evaluated again, since he had been working only in English, his second language, for a few years. He found it unfortunate not to be able to participate in the process for that reason and he simply wished to get an indeterminate position in the public service.

The candidate said he made an error in judgment and indicated that he would have withdrawn from the process if he had been selected based on false Second Language Evaluation results. The evidence gathered demonstrated that the candidate intentionally changed his language evaluation results and sent them to the department in order to advance in the process, that is, with the aim of deceiving and, therefore, committed fraud within the meaning of section 69 since the appointment process could have been compromised.

Corrective action: The Commission ordered that:

• For a period of three years, the candidate obtain the written approval of the Commission before accepting any position within the federal public service;
• For a period of three years, the candidate notify the Commission of any work obtained through casual employment or student programs;
• A copy of the Investigation Report and the Record of Decision must be sent to the deputy head of the candidate’s home department to notify of the fraud he committed;
• The applicant must take a Values and Ethics course within six months of the date of the Commission’s Record of Decision and then have a discussion with his director or director general to ensure that the applicant has well understood the course.

Investigation File No.: 14-15-09