2012–13 Report on Annual Expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences

The Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada was set up to administer the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (the Act), which came into force in April 2007. The Office is mandated to establish a safe, independent, and confidential process for public servants and members of the public to disclose potential wrongdoing in the federal public sector. The Office also exists to protect from reprisal those public servants who have filed disclosures or participated in related investigations.

To fulfill this mandate, the Office incurs travel, hospitality and conference expenditures to carry out operational activities, such as conducting interviews during an investigation or attending conferences to inform public servants of the Act and the role of the Office. The travel, hospitality and conference expenditures in 2012–13 were $46,000, which were $6,000 (13%) lower than the prior year expenditures. The highlights of the changes in the level of spending include the following:

• There was increased travel for training and conferences as a greater number of events were attended to engage with the provincial and international community, as well as costs to attend interview and interrogation training for operations.
• There were reduced costs of hospitality as the prior year expenditures included the hosting of a two-day workshop for government department and agency senior officers.
• The conference costs in 2012 reflected participation fees as an exhibitor with a booth which were classified as exposition services, in information costs, in 2013.

Total annual expenditures for travel, hospitality and conferences of the Office are summarized below (in thousands of dollars):