Auditor General's 2024 Annual Report on the Fraud and Waste Hotline

This is a reduction from 2023 by approximately 36 per cent or 375 complaints, primarily the result of receiving fewer complaints outside of our jurisdiction (not related to the City of Toronto), as well as subsidy fraud complaints. Despite the decrease in the number of complaints, we continue to manage a high volume of allegations, which has remained relatively consistent over the past five years at an average of approximately 1,250 allegations per year. The Hotline Program has helped to reduce losses and resulted in the protection of City assets. The actual and potential losses from complaints received from 2020 to 2024 are $2.0 million (actual losses) plus $1.1 million (potential losses) had the fraud not been detected. Additional benefits that are not quantifiable include: - the deterrence of fraud or wrongdoing - strengthened internal controls - improvements in policies and procedures - increased operational efficiencies - the ability to use complaint data to identify trends and emerging issues, make results-oriented recommendations to management, and inform our Audit Work Plan.