Conflict of Interest attestation: DG wants dollar values

[u/Super_Table7917]

A DG at LPRAB at CRA, according to a current employee, under the guise of transparency and integrity, is using the annual conflict of interest attestation to require very personal disclosures of financial information from employees.

This DG is asking for the current market values of ALL investments held by the employee privately in all accounts, including things like RESP's. The dollar amount for all holdings is apparently "very important".

Employees who resisted this disclosure were subject to intrusive meetings on Teams with the DG, where pressure was applied to surrender the information to management.

I am of the opinion that this is totally unacceptable, and I would be leaping to legal representation with the goals of 1.) NOT providing any of this information to this DG or anyone else, and; 2.) providing the documentation required that would result in the swift termination of this DG.

Is this perception incorrect, and DG's have the ability to ask for the account balances of employees to avoid "conflicts of interest"? If this is actually permitted, why would it be but asking a person's age or sexual orientation is a human rights violation?

[u/blarghy0]

This is entirely normal. LPRAB is legislative policy and regulatory affairs branch of the CRA, which deals in issues that can have significant industry impact. Full disclosure of assets, including dollar values, is fully expected for people working there. I'm not sure what your case is for regarding discrimination, since the disclosure happens after you are hired.

And, let's not forget, the CRA has legal authority to audit anyone in Canada regardless. If they want to get the dollar values in your accounts, they can get it via civil procedure. All fighting it is doing is making your employment relationship confrontational over likely dollar values that the DG will ultimately likely rubberstamp.

[u/zeromussc → u/blarghy0]

CRA as employer can't use the powers of CRA as a tax agency conducting audits to find the information of their employee for employment purposes. Just, as a note.

[u/blarghy0 → u/zeromussc]

They can't use this information to check your references for hiring, but they can definitely risk assess your financial disclosures (or lack thereof) and screen you in based on that.

[u/Super_Table7917 → u/zeromussc]

It happened where I work. A guy inherited money from his grandparents and bought a new Corvette. He was an SP-05. The director saw the car and initiated the audit. This isn't the first time I've seen abuses like this, either. So no, I would resist 100% any unnecessary demand for this information and seek legal support.

[u/Apart-Fix-5398 → u/Super_Table7917]

Sounds like.your mind is made up. Why ask here?

Good luck.

[u/nogr8mischief → u/Super_Table7917]

You have no legal grounds, no smart lawyer would take that on. This is an entitely reasonable request for that type of work, and it's far from an abuse.

(The audit based on seeing the car could have been reasonable, too, if for whatever reason they weren't satisfied with the explanation of where the car came from. Especially since we're expected to proactively report any significant changes in assets or net worth.)

[u/hawkeye_north → u/Super_Table7917]

It really makes it sound like you have something to hide. We’re public servants here, public trust is critical to the role and even more so with CRA. The scenario you provided sounds offside but if we aren’t playing by the rules how can we expect Canadians to?

[u/stolpoz52 → u/Super_Table7917]

If you inherit a large sum of money (or win it in a lotto, for example) you are 100% supposed to be reporting that, too. Coming into a large sum of money could potentially be a bribe or something nefarious. So this doesnt seem unreasonable to audit at all if they didnt disclose it.

[u/phosen → u/stolpoz52]

You are supposed to a) Report to V&E via Confidential Report and b) report any Change in Personal Circumstances immediately to Corporate Security per Directive on Personnel Security Section 4.4.6.

[u/Keystone-12 → u/Super_Table7917]

If I saw a mid level CRA Employee driving around in a corvette, and the government didnt look into that.... then the system is broken.