Deloitte’s recent $1.6-million Health Human Resources Report, commissioned for a Canadian province, has come under fire due to the discovery of fake citations. This announcement followed only four days after The Independent exposed these discrepancies. It raised serious questions about the integrity of the report and the company’s practices.
The release of the report was supposed to help plug the holes in what has become an acute staffing crisis within the health authority. A disturbing amount of these citations pointed to articles that don’t exist, leading us to question Deloitte’s methodology. In at least two cases, real researchers were listed as the authors of made-up articles without their knowledge. This wholly and completely gutted the credibility of the findings.
The Independent’s investigation uncovered that a representative from the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists contacted their publication to clarify that an article cited in Deloitte’s report “has not been published in the Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapy.” This statement was made by Jason Nickerson, the senior director of public policy for the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists, who emphasized that they “have no further information on the veracity or origins of this citation and were not involved or consulted in the drafting of this report.”
This most unfortunate incident is not an isolated failure. Deloitte has been under fire this past year in Australia as well, where they paid back government dollars after a researcher found plagiarized citations in a government commissioned report produced by Deloitte. That scandal raised serious questions about accountability and intent within Deloitte’s third party reporting practices.
In light of these recent events, Premier Tony Wakeham’s office has requested an investigation from the Department of Government Services into Deloitte’s report and its implications for public health policy.
Deloitte has denied the allegations, but say that they are taking actions to correct the issue. A spokesperson for the firm confirmed that they are “revising the report to make a small number of citation corrections, which do not impact the report findings.” They clarified that AI was “not used to write the report,” but rather “selectively used to support a small number of research citations.”
Despite these reassurances, skepticism remains. The report made untested assertions about the workload and stress levels registered respiratory therapists faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics have warned that dependence on misleading citations could produce serious implications in the real world for how we understand and go about combating these problems.
Deloitte maintains confidence in its work, asserting that it “firmly stands behind the recommendations put forward.” They expressed a commitment to evolving their governance and practices relating to AI and emerging technologies to ensure future accuracy, transparency, and accountability.
Stakeholders from every sector, including local government and the private sector, are increasing their level of oversight. They are asking for greater safeguards on how these reports are generated and verified. Deloitte’s report serves as a valuable blueprint to inform staffing decisions and policies throughout our healthcare system. Thus, it is important that these findings are 100 percent accurate.
