MONTREAL, May 1 (UPI) -- Officials say they found more than 456 cases of misconduct involving kickbacks and other wrongdoing within the Montreal office of the Canadian Revenue Agency.
The agency has fired seven people from its Montreal office because of their connection to "high-risk misconduct" alleged by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The infractions, averaging 57 per year throughout the nation, involve breach of trust, fraud, conflict of interest, falsification or destruction of documents, abuse of authority, unauthorized access or disclosure of confidential information and off-duty conduct.
A member of Parliament, Hoang Mai, said he's specifically concerned about the RCMP investigation into a 2008 incident allegedly involving senior officials in the CRA Montreal office, in which certain companies allegedly were offered preferential treatment in exchange for kickbacks, The Globe and Mail of Toronto reported Monday.
"It's been four years, and we still don't have charges," Hoang said. "We've been asking lots of questions, and the only answer that we are getting is that the CRA can't comment because of the ongoing investigation."
Some RCMP search warrants allege authorities within the CRA assisted Quebec construction companies in evading taxes. Others are accused of taking kickbacks from businesspeople in exchange for failing to take action on unreported income, the newspaper reported.
Two CRA auditors were let go in 2009 after investigators found they held a joint $1.7 million bank account in the Bahamas with the owner of a construction firm, but no charges have resulted from the RCMP investigation.
