The appointed advocate for public sector whistleblowers not only failed to do her job, she herself engaged in "inappropriate conduct" with her own staff, the auditor general says in a scathing report.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser says Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet failed to follow up properly on more than 170 allegations of wrongdoing in the public service brought forward since her position was created in 2007.

In fact, the report finds Ouimet's office did not find a single case of wrongdoing among the 170 complaints, and launched only three official investigations.

The complaints included the case of military veteran Sean Bruyea, who has since received an apology from the federal government for the way bureaucrats handled his file.

The report states that Ouimet, the country's first federal public sector integrity commissioner, didn't implement procedures for investigating cases, and dismissed disclosures of wrongdoing without proper investigation.

"In our view, a more thorough approach to these files was warranted before decisions to refuse to investigate, or to dismiss, these disclosures and complaints could be reached," the report concluded.

Speaking on CTV's Power Play on Thursday, Fraser said that even in cases where a reasonable finding was concluded, Ouimet's office showed "a lack of rigour in how the work was conducted."

What's more, Ouimet created a toxic atmosphere within her office, berating and swearing at staff, and even trying to smear the character of an employee who Ouimet believed had complained about her to the Auditor General.

"The turnover of staff was over 50 per cent; this a very small office. At one point, 18 out of 22 employees left," said Fraser.

The numbers appear to counter Ouimet's mandate of protecting public servants from reprisals, the report suggests.

Fraser said that Ouimet investigated former employees who she suspected of launching complaints against her. In one case, she amassed a 375-page file on a man she thought had reported her after he left his job and went to the public service.

"She also contacted his former employer. She shared personal information, her opinions about his character, his health, his work performance within the public service and outside of the public service. So this person obviously felt that this could be damaging to his work."

Ouimet has responded that complaints from her employees that she treated with disrespect were exaggerated. She said the employees in question were angry at being denied promotions promised by previous managers.

Ouimet suddenly resigned in October, in the midst of Fraser's investigation, which was prompted by three internal complaints in 2008 and 2009.

The report says while Ouimet was given a chance to respond to the final report, she hasn't.

"In our view, the Commissioner's behaviour and actions do not pass the test of public scrutiny and are inappropriate and unacceptable for a public servant -- most notably for the Agent of Parliament specifically charged with the responsibility of upholding integrity in the public sector and of protecting public servants from reprisal," the report says.

Fraser noted that investigators had to sidestep the Public Service Disclosure Protection Act because it would not allow them to speak to former employees.

"We changed it into an audit, and our audit concluded that the allegations against the commissioner were founded."