Thank you.
You've heard the overview and rundown of what has happened in the past six years. I'm going to concentrate on one very small part of the investigation, but it's a little tricky, so I'm going to do my best here. It's about the insurance outsourcing.
Before I begin, I'd like to make note of the fact that the RCMP is a national icon in Canada and an international symbol of Canada around the world. No organization achieves such lofty heights without there being those who wish to knock it down to size. On the other hand, there are also those who will do their best to maintain that iconic status at all costs, as they believe the public will accept nothing less than perfection.
I am in neither group. I believe that organizations are made up of people, and as such they will make mistakes. I believe the public will understand and forgive as long as they know that we are doing everything we can to avoid making mistakes in the first place, to learn from the mistakes we do make, and to make darned sure they never happen again. Our ethics and integrity must be beyond reproach.
Having said that, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the insurance administration portion of the investigation. The insurance outsourcing was not part of the original investigation. That's why you always hear it referred to as the pension investigation. It drew our interest when we noticed that pension funds were being funneled into the insurance plans. We looked at it further, and here are some of the things we found. I won't be able to go into everything because of the time restrictions, but this will give you an idea.
For over 50 years the members of the RCMP have been part of several group insurance plans underwritten by the same company and, until recently, administered by the RCMP on behalf of our employer, the Treasury Board of Canada. A few years back the National Compensation Policy Centre of the RCMP--I'm going to refer to them as the NCPC--realized that the computer system the insurance data were stored on was unreliable. They had to look at new ways, then, of dealing with administering the insurance. Without any real analysis, it was decided to outsource the insurance administration.
This was the more expensive option, so NCPC should have gone to Treasury Board to get both authorization to outsource as well as the extra funds required. Instead they went to what's called the insurance committee. The committee was not told of the risk to the RCMP. Instead they were told, “This is just the way things are going these days; the government wants you guys to carry your own plan, so you don't really have any choice in the matter”. Without being fully informed, the insurance committee reluctantly agreed that the administration costs could come out of the members' premiums account.
At this point a competition to select an insurance administrator should have happened, but this would have taken time and drawn attention to the fact that NCPC was trying to outsource the administration of both the pension and the insurance at the same time. So, instead, NCPC asked the insurance underwriter if they would take on the administration. NCPC was counting on the fact that no one would question the underwriter becoming the administrator, because the average person wouldn't distinguish between the two roles. It worked. The underwriter agreed to look at becoming the insurance administrator, and no one questioned it.
Unfortunately, around a quarter of a million dollars was drained from the insurance funds before the underwriter decided they could not do the administration, so no work was received for that money. By this time, though, a pension administrator had been chosen through a competitive process, so the NCPC told the insurance underwriter, “Keep it under your hat; we're going to see if we can strike a deal with the pension administrator to take on the insurance as well.”
They were successful in striking a deal. However, they were left with two problems. Number one, costs for the administration had doubled, and that would be noticed coming out of the accounts, so that's when they decided to dip into the pension funds to augment the insurance costs. They also needed a plan to circumvent the government contracting rules and avoid a competitive process. What they did was ask the insurance underwriter to pretend that they were going to be the insurance administrators, and then they would sublet those responsibilities to the pension administrator. I know that's confusing, but it gives you an idea anyway.
This actually worked, and no one noticed anything. This arrangement stayed in place until the pension investigation. Once it was determined by the investigation what had happened, I took the information directly to senior managers, who I thought could put an end to it and ensure that the moneys were repaid.
As the investigation was closing up, I learned that despite assurances to the contrary, the money was still being drained from the insurance plans, and in fact over half a million dollars had recently been taken out. There's presently an investigation going on into the minutes of that meeting having been falsified.
The general membership and pensioners of the RCMP have never heard this story fully explained to them, and they deserve better. They need to be able to concentrate on doing their work for Canadians without having to worry that they're being taken advantage of by the people who should be looking out for them.
I'm asking you today to help us restore the faith of the rank-and-file members of the RCMP and show them that their hard work for Canadians is appreciated and that the RCMP is measured by their hard work and dedication to their communities, not by the self-serving actions of a well-placed few.
Thank you.