When she took office in February 2022, Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM) President Isabelle Beaulieu inherited a poorly run organization with no clear framework, no code of ethics, where employees were engaged in “time theft,” she said during her appearance before a city commission on Friday morning.
Posted at 10:04 am.
“There were many gaps, there are still some,” she said during her presentation at the town hall, where she was summoned by the Commission for Finance and Administration.
Ms. Beaulieu claims to have taken numerous measures to put an end to questionable practices that took place under the rule of her predecessor, Dominique Ollivier, who chaired the OCPM from 2014 to 2021.
She says that when she took office she significantly reduced the number of trips and also better controlled employees’ working hours in order to increase productivity. Since the controversy that rocked the organization, there have been no more outings or meals in restaurants for executives, she assured.
In January, following complaints about the working environment, the president hired an independent firm to investigate. She says she faced hostile staff, sympathizers from Projet Montréal (Mayor Valérie Plante’s party) and close ties to Dominique Ollivier.
“This external investigation report confirms the management deficiencies I observed, my desire for change and productivity, and a political context in which certain employees wanted to harm me,” she emphasizes. “All recommendations in the investigation report were followed. Two human resources specialists accompanied the management. A code of ethics for employees has been created, human resources policies have been clarified and work continues. »
Ms. Ollivier left the organization to enter local politics with Mayor Plante’s team and, upon her election, became President of the Executive Committee. She resigned from that position on Monday after the Quebec media exposed her expenses as president of the OCPM two weeks ago.
Isabelle Beaulieu has to answer questions from citizens and elected members of the Commission this morning.
Dominique Ollivier will then appear before the commission again from midday.
Mayor Plante, who at the beginning of the controversy had initially reiterated her support for Ms. Ollivier before accepting her resignation, repeated several times that Ms. Beaulieu and Guy Grenier, Secretary General of the OCPM, no longer had the confidence of his government and that they were resigning should.
The two women, who were friends and former business partners, billed and approved tens of thousands of dollars in dining and travel expenses for several years, expenses that were difficult to justify, shocking the public and the public. chosen.
Notably, Ms. Ollivier has spent nearly $18,000 at restaurants in four years, including a $347 oyster dinner in Paris with a colleague and former business partner. A mission to Africa cost taxpayers $23,000. And Ms. Beaulieu bought $900 worth of headphones using public funds.
More details to follow.