Section 69 – Accessing assessment material during the take-home exam – Founded

Section 69 – Founded – Fraud – Accessing assessment material during the take-home exam

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

Issue: The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a candidate in an appointment process committed fraud by accessing assessment material during the take-home exam.

Conclusion: The investigation concluded that the candidate committed fraud by knowingly accessing assessment material during the take-home exam and using it in their answers.

Facts: In 2018, an advertised internal appointment process was launched to hire a management administrative officer. The candidate was already an employee of the department running the appointment process. They were screened in and invited to do a take-home exam.

The invitation to the written exam indicated that candidates would need access to the internet to complete the written exam, but did not mention whether candidates were allowed to consult documents or reference material.

The hiring manager sent the written exam to candidates by email a week later. Attached to the email was the exam and a signed declaration to be completed by the candidates. This declaration instructed candidates to ensure that they had access to the internet, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. The first page of the written exam contained additional instructions, which stated that responses to the written exam should be prepared solely by the candidate. Additionally, and contrary to the instructions on the declaration, the instruction on the first page of the written exam stated that candidates would not be allowed to access the internet or any other documents as a source of information.

The hiring manager developed the exam and the rating guide which included the expected answers. The rating guide was stored on one of the department’s internal drives, which was only accessible to employees who worked in a particular branch of the department. The candidate, who happened to work in that branch, had therefore access to the drive where the rating guide was stored.

When the hiring manager was correcting the written exams, they noticed that the candidate’s answers were almost identical to the answers they had written. In a subsequent meeting with the hiring manager, the candidate admitted to having accessed the rating guide during the written exam and copy-pasted their answers.

During the investigation, the candidate explained that they did not realize that the document they had accessed was the rating guide for this particular appointment process. Moreover, they indicated that the instructions to the written exam stated that candidates had permission to use the internet and for this reason they believed that the exam was open book. The investigator determined that the candidate’s explanation lacked credibility. Although some of the instructions with respect to access to the internet were contradictory, a reasonable person would not conflate performing a general internet search with accessing a rating guide stored on an internal drive.

To conclude that fraud occurred in an appointment process pursuant to section 69 of the Public Service Employment Act, 2 essential elements of fraud must be met: dishonesty and deprivation or risk of deprivation. The evidence showed that, on the balance of probabilities, the candidate acted dishonestly by accessing the rating guide and copy-pasting their answers to the written exam. The appointment process could have been compromised if the candidate’s actions had gone undetected.

Corrective action:

Following the conclusion of fraud in the appointment process, the Commission ordered that:

• for a period of 3 years, the individual must notify the Public Service Commission before accepting any position or work in the federal public service
  • failure to do so will result in the revocation of the appointment
• the individual must complete the Values and Ethics Foundations for Employees course offered by the Canada School of Public Service, and then have a discussion with their director
  • failure to complete the course or to participate in the discussion will result in the revocation of the individual’s current appointment

Investigation File No.: 20-21-05