eHealth making critics sick

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http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/05/29/9607096-sun.html

eHealth making critics sick

Opposition wants 'walking papers' issued to minister, CEO over questionable

expenditures

By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU CHIEF

Last Updated: 29th May 2009, 2:01am

eNough, government critics say.

Opposition parties at Queen's Park are calling for heads to roll after the

newest revelations of eye-popping expenditures at eHealth Ontario -- the

taxpayer-funded agency established to produce electronic medical records for

every citizen in the province.

One consultant with a four-month contract worth $210,600 billed taxpayers for

items as small as her $1.57 Tim Hortons tea, her BBQ chicken sub, a $2.98 soup,

and her muffins and pops, as well as travel to and from Alberta, and a

$2,820-a-month apartment in Toronto.

Even Premier Dalton McGuinty is struggling to understand the spending and has

said that he welcomes the results of an ongoing investigation of the agency by

the auditor general.

'DO NOT SIT EASY'

" I know that there are some facts that have been brought to the floor which do

not sit easy with us in government as they do not with my colleagues opposite, "

McGuinty said in the Legislature yesterday.

" I understand that the auditor is looking at this ... If he wanted to come out

with recommendations sooner rather than later, we would welcome those as well. "

Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Progressive Conservatives have

revealed that eHealth Ontario CEO Kramer approved nearly $5 million in

contracts that weren't put out for a competitive bid.

Sun Media has learned that one consultant charged taxpayers $300 an hour to

consult with her husband -- who also had a consulting contract with eHealth

Ontario.

Taxpayers paid $7,000 to a consultant to write Kramer's speech to Health Active

2008, and hundreds of dollars more to update her biography.

Even the official spokesman for eHealth was a consultant who charged $1,600 a

day to provide communications advice and talk to media, billing $33,200 for

20.75 days work in March alone.

Questions were also raised in the legislature about consultants who billed the

Ontario taxpayer to read The New York Times, talk on the subway and watch TV.

On top of that, Kramer received a $114,000 bonus within months of beginning her

$380,000-a-year position.

eHealth Ontario and its predecessor agency have spent $146 million on

consultants since 2003, despite commitments to reign in billings for outside

expertise, and overall agency spending has ballooned to $839 million.

Other provinces are ahead of Ontario in producing records although so far they

have spent less money.

INITIATIVES LAGGING

Health Minister Caplan said the province's eHealth initiatives are lagging

behind other provinces, and urgency was required to get the process more quickly

underway, so contracts were signed without tendering.

" Ontario, I say quite candidly, should be further ahead, " Caplan said.

Kramer said in a televised interview that taxpayers got value for their money

from the contracts.

PC Leader Bob Runciman said eHealth could have sought approval for a short

tendering period instead of using urgency as an excuse for handing out

million-dollar contracts without competition.

During Question Period, Runciman called on the premier to give Kramer and Caplan

their " walking papers. "

NDP MPP France Gelinas also called for heads to roll, saying eHealth Ontario and

its predecessor agency have produced next to nothing for more than

three-quarters of a billion dollars.