EX ALBERTAN HEALTH MINISTER Mr. Gary Marr, who is now posted as Alberta’s Minister-Counsellor in Washington DC. Mr. Marr has held many positions in Alberta’s cabinet including heath minister, environment minister and education minister. Mr. Gary Marr now HAD RESIGNED AS HEALTH MINISTER CAUSE WHILE HE TOOK HIS PAY FOR BEING A HEALTH MINISTER HE HAD ALSO HIRED AT AN EXTRA PAY A CONSULTANT TO DO THE ACTUAL WORK, TO DO THE WORK THAT HE WAS BEING PAID FOR. AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT A MESS ALBERTA’S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS IN EVEN NOW. SO AS A REWARD BAD BAD MARR NOW HAS A GOVERNMENT PAYING JOB IN WASHIBGTON DC. UNBELIVEABLE.
TORONTO — At least one eHealth Ontario consultant has paid back questionable expenses to the agency in a spending uproar that has Premier Dalton McGuinty ordering an across-the-board review of how private sector contractors get paid for public work. “To the best of my knowledge, the rules that are in place have not been broken but I think what it calls for is maybe a revamping of those rules that control private-sector spending of public dollars,” McGuinty said. “I think we’ve done a fairly good job through the government itself … to be very careful when it comes to spending public money. But now we’ve got to take it a step further — we’ve got to ensure that when we retain the private sector to spend public money that they’re just as careful as we have been in the public sector.” PC Leader Bob Runciman said his members will call today for Health Minister David Caplan and eHealth Ontario chairman Dr. Alan Hudson to appear before a government committee to explain the expenditures. “Spending $27,000 for a cocktail party in Quebec City — I mean, it’s just outrageous,” Runciman said of one eHealth expense. “David Dingwall (former Royal Canadian Mint boss) would be proud of the way this government is operating and its agencies are operating. They clearly believe they’re entitled to their entitlements, taxpayer be damned.” Runciman has repeatedly raised the issue of cocktails billed by one high-priced consultant at eHealth. Allaudin Merali, an Alberta consultant who charges eHealth $2,700 a day for his services and receives a $75 per diem to cover his daily out-of-pocket costs, initially hit taxpayers for a nightly class of wine during a stay at the Royal York last November. A spokesman for eHealth Ontario said yesterday Merali, who is the senior vice-president of corporate services with the agency, repaid the booze bill in April. Merali reduced his May invoice by $1,000 as a precautionary measure, the spokesman said. Opposition parties have mounted a furious attack over eHeath’s spending, demanding the resignations of both CEO Sarah Kramer and Caplan. Kramer was brought in after the Liberal government demolished Smart Systems for Health Agency, which had made little headway in building an electronic health record system despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars. The government has been pleased with the progress Kramer has made on the file since she started in November 2008 but Caplan said yesterday that is now being overshadowed by revelations about the expense accounts. Caplan said he’s asked the auditor general to speed up his investigation of eHealth and SSHA, originally due in December and has also ordered auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers to look into how eHealth is running itself. That’s something PWC already did in January, finding nothing wrong. This time, though, a health ministry auditor will oversee the work. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/06/03/9659861-sun.html
YES I DO TRUST THE EXECUTIVES OF PriceWaterhouseCoopers especially after two accounting executives in Calgary had asked for 2 free computers to be delivered to their homes to facilitate more computer purchases as I had witnessed firsthand..
FOR A DECADE TOO I HAVE MADE IT VERY CLEAR RIGHTFULLY TO ALL NEWS EDITORS, ELECTED POLITICIANS AT THE FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL, MUNICIPAL LEVEL THAT NOT ONE CENT OF TAXPAYER’S MONEY SHOULD BE USED TO BUY ALCOHOL ENTERTAINMENT, EVEN BECAUSE 45 PERCENT OF ALL VEHICULAR ACCIDENTS ARE CAUSED BY ALCOHOL, DRUNK DRIVERS, 65 PERCENT OF ALL CRIMES, DOMESTIC ABUSES NOW TOO.. ADDING TO THE OVERALL HEALTH CARE COSTS TOO. http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/the-time-has-come-to-end-glamourising-alcohol-sponsorship/
Personal ties exposed in eHealth’s untendered contracts CBC.ca – Executives at two companies awarded untendered contracts from eHealth Ontario had close personal connections to the CEO and board chairman, CBC News has learned.
eHealth chiefs gave $2M deals to associates Toronto Star - Sarah Kramer is head of eHealth Ontario, which was established in 2008 to develop electronic health records for the province. (March 4, 2009) At least $2 million in untendered contracts were awarded by eHealth Ontario to long-time associates of agency …
Critics lash out at government over eHealth spending CTV.ca
Tories, NDP say heads must roll at eHealth Ontario over untendered … The Canadian Press
CBC.ca – Welland Tribune – Toronto Sun
I WROTE OFTEN ABOUT THIS BEFORE, COMPUTER PURCHASE PRACTICES ARE ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPTED RIDDEN PRACTICES.. AND I WAS ALSO STILL SURPRISED MORE SUCH REVELATIONS HAVE NOT BEEN FORTHCOMING IN THE LAST 3 DECADES NOW TOO.. OR IN FACT ABOUT THE REST OF THE CORRUPTED HOSPITAL PROCUREMENT PRACTICE IN ALL PROVINCES..
WE ALL ALREADY KNOW THE RCMP IS TOO INCOMPETENT TO HANDLE SUCH REVIEWS, FOR THEY ARE VERY LIKELY CORRUPTED THEMSELVES EVEN IN THESE MATTERS TOO..
Consultants nickel-and-dimed taxpayers Toronto Star – Muffin, $1.39: One of the items billed by eHealth Ontario senior vice-president Donna Strating, according to documents obtained by the Progressive Conservative party through freedom of information.
TORONTO – An outside review of spending habits and expense abuses at the Ontario agency tasked with creating electronic health records is “a joke,” the opposition parties charged Tuesday as they again demanded Health Minister David Caplan’s resignation. The Liberal government set up eHealth Ontario last fall after the first agency appointed to create electronic health records spent about $650 million and failed to produce anything of substance. EHealth has come under fire for doling out $5 million in untendered contracts in just a few months and for hiring consultants at up to $300 an hour. Some billed taxpayers extra for such things as a cup of tea or a biscuit at Tim Hortons. PriceWaterhouseCoopers was paid $27,000 in January for a report on eHealth, which found the agency’s spending practices were appropriate. Caplan has announced the same firm will now do another review of procurement and expenses at the provincial agency. “Appointing a firm of consultants to decide if consultants are being paid the right amount is laughable at best and a very sad state of where we are at,” said NDP critic France Gelinas. “It makes no sense to have an outside consultant decide how much consultants should be paid.” The Progressive Conservatives said the latest PriceWaterhouseCoopers review is “a sham” aimed at hiding what’s really happening at eHealth Ontario. “This review is nothing more than a punch-line for a terrible joke,” said interim Opposition Leader Bob Runciman. “It’s designed to detract attention from the fact that the McGuinty Liberals have looked the other way while eHealth continues to ignore, bend and twist the rules on the taxpayer’s dime.” Caplan admitted he was concerned about some of the reports coming out about eHealth, but said the agency’s work is too important to let it be derailed by concerns over spending habits and expense abuses. He vowed the scope of the second review would be more in depth, and would be backed up by an investigation by Ontario auditor general Jim McCarter. “It is much broader than anything they have looked at before,” Caplan told reporters. “We’ve asked them to look at the management practices and at the financial controls.”
Another untendered contract surfaces at embattled eHealth Ontario CBC.ca - The list of untendered contracts awarded by eHealth Ontario continues to grow, with information received by CBC News revealing yet another contract that was never open to competitive bids. Since eHealth arose from the ashes of the embattled Smart Systems for Health Agency last September, the new level of senior VP has been added to the organizational structure. Two individuals recently hired to senior vice-president posts are earning more than $700,000 a year, putting them among some of the highest paid civil servants in Ontario. 3 consultants exit
CBC News has also learned that three high-priced consultants have left eHealth since the controversy broke last Wednesday. They were given notice last Friday that their services were no longer needed, eHealth spokeswoman Deanna Allen said.
The consultants were:
An executive assistant from Courtyard Group who was earning about $1,700 a day;
Donna Kline, a consultant who earned about $192,000 in a five-month period and was working as senior vice-president of communications.
Chris Dingman, whose company Strategy Works Inc., received a $162,000 untendered contract from the agency to “provide leadership for organizational change.”
This latest information comes on the heels of news revealed by CBC News of personal connections between top eHealth officials and executives at two companies awarded more than $3.3 million in untendered contracts.
When applying for the eHealth CEO post, Kramer’s resume listed an Accenture Inc. executive, whose wife was a childhood friend, as a personal reference.
Accenture was awarded three sole-sourced contracts worth $1.3 million, two when Kramer was not yet hired but advising the board of directors and the third a couple months after she took office on Nov. 3, 2008.
Also in question are ties between the board of directors chairman Dr. Alan Hudson and a consulting firm that was granted about $2 million in untendered contracts.
Sources describe Hudson as an old colleague and mentor to Courtyard Group’s founding partner Michael Guerriere. Courtyard received contracts from Cancer Care Ontario when Hudson was head of that agency.
Courtyard was awarded a $915,000 untendered contract in October 2008 when the board, with Hudson at its helm, apparently held the agency’s purse strings, and later got $1 million in contracts under Kramer.
Another $14M emerges in untendered eHealth contracts Canada.com - TORONTO – The spending scandal at eHealth Ontario widened Wednesday, as new documents emerged showing the value of untendered consulting contracts – some of them to friends and associates of senior agency officials – is close to $19 million, …
Former eHealth Ontario CEO, board members travel in style on … The Canadian Press - TORONTO – The ousted CEO of scandal-plagued eHealth Ontario liked to travel in style on the taxpayers’ dime, billing repeatedly for limousine rides, while members of the agency’s board were reimbursed for flights from as far away as Florida to attend …
Liberals change tune on eHealth bonus Toronto Star - Jun 6, 2009 The fate of embattled eHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer is unclear after new revelations about her six-figure bonus were heaped atop days of controversy over rich consultancy fees, executive perks and untendered contracts. EHealth was established in 2008 to develop electronic health records for all Ontarians by 2015. Smart Systems for Health, spent about $650 million but failed to produce anything of value before it was quietly shut down. This week the Star reported: eHealth Ontario paid a consultant who submitted an invoice for eight hours of work in which she said she consulted herself, then followed up with questions for herself. Agency spokeswoman Deanna Allen said the bill contained a typo and that the consultant had consulted and followed up with a colleague, but acknowledged the invoice had been paid as filed.
At least $2 million in untendered contracts were awarded by eHealth to long-time associates of agency chair Dr. Alan Hudson and CEO Kramer, according to Progressive Conservative MPPs. Allen said the eHealth board, not Hudson, awarded contracts before Kramer’s arrival.
An eHealth consultant billed for tea and a dessert square while earning $2,700 a day.
Another consultant being paid $2,750 a day collected $75 a day for expenses. He has flown home to Edmonton 31 times in five months at a cost of nearly $21,000.
Another untendered contract surfaces at embattled eHealth Ontario CBC.ca
eHealth head fired amid contract controversy The government of Premier Dalton McGuinty announced Sunday, June 7, 2009 that it was revoking Sarah Kramer’s appointment as president of eHealth Ontario, a provincial agency … eHealth Ontario president and CEO Sarah Kramer — who made headlines last week when the progressive Conservative opposition raised allegations of gross overspending at the provincial agency — was fired Sunday by David Caplan, Ontario’s Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Caplan’s decision to fire Kramer has done little to assuage the opposition. “A so-called resignation on a Sunday afternoon that is clearly designed to avoid public scrutiny is simply not acceptable,” said Opposition Leader Bob Runciman in a statement on Sunday. Last week, information obtained from a Freedom of Information request by Conservative researchers revealed eHealth spent $5 million in untendered contracts in only four months, from its inception in late September 2008 to January 2009. The contracts revealed a tangle of relationships between many senior eHealth officials, including Kramer, Hudson and their former colleagues and associates. “The culture of entitlement within the leadership of eHealth, it’s something I’ve never seen in health care before,” said New Democrat France Gelinas last week.
President of eHealth Steps Down 580 CFRA Radio
Give the people control of online health records Ottawa Citizen - June 12, 2009Comments (1) Privacy issues, not untendered contracts should be the greatest worry for Ontarians when it comes to eHealth.
Dumb and dumber Toronto Sun
Now as I was reflecting about my many past posts on the net in the last few years I was really saddened to note that too many of them were about bad , greedy people trying to steal , trying to get other people’s money for themselves, stealing the money, or getting it under false pretences. The love of more money is still the basis of what many of the wrong doings is, was all about..(Eccl 8:11 KJV) Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
