Call the cops over eHealth

Posted By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD

Posted 3 months ago

It's time to call the cops to probe eHealth. That's the only way to ensure we get to the bottom of what actually went on with the out-of-control spending, untendered contracts and lavish expenses that sloshed out the door at the agency charged with getting health records online.

Opposition leader Tim Hudak called for a public inquiry this week, citing the need for a probe into apparent, "bid-rigging," (his words) reported in last week's report by Auditor General Jim McCarter. (McCarter said he found no evidence of criminal wrong-doing. Then again, his job is to audit, not to apportion blame.) A public probe such as the Gomery inquiry would be useful, but costly. Do we really want to send a billion good dollars after a billion bad ones?

Very often, public inquiries are more about theatre than about good government. Remember Jean Chretien and his "small town cheap" golf ball stunt?

A police probe would be done by professionals, away from public glare. No reputations would be unfairly smeared on the road to truth.

He may not have found criminal wrongdoing, but McCarter certainly points out "questionable contracts" at eHealth.

One company bidding on a contract "was aware of additional pertinent information that had not been disclosed to the other vendors."

The company had already been paid $25,700 under a previous sole-sourced contract with eHealth.

"The firm was selected as the successful bidder even though its bid price of $3.1 million was more than 500% higher than another qualified bidder's price of $570,000," McCarter says in his report.

What's more, the project had a $700,000 budget. These Liberals were merciless in Opposition in calling for inquiries, for ministers to resign. Yet they're the last ones to live up to the standards they called for back then.

Tory tourism minister Cam Jackson quit in 2002 over steak dinners he expensed. Integrity Commissioner Coulter Osborne later ruled his expenses were "reasonable and appropriate," yet the Liberal rat pack, such as now deputy premier George Smitherman, as well as Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello, ripped him limb from limb.

Ditto for Chris Stockwell, who expensed part of a Paris trip to the Ontario Power Corporation.

Those indiscretions pale in comparison to the $1-billion eHealth boondoggle.

Ombudsman Andre Marin compared the government's myriad agencies, boards and commissions (ABCs) to out-of-control Frankenstein monsters at a speech to the Economic Club yesterday.

"The damage that some of them have wrought can't be ignored. Even worse, it is not just a freak occurrence for ABCs to get out of control. I have investigated enough examples of acute maladministration to know conclusively that the problem of ABC accountability is not confined to just a few rogue agencies. It is a symptom of a widespread, systemic failure," Marin said.

Premier Dalton McGuinty rejected a call for a public inquiry. He spent this week travelling the province trying to talk about anything but the troubled agency. I'm not sure he'll be able to change the channel that easily when $1 billion that should have been spent on cancer drugs or on reducing wait times got lavished instead on wine-swilling, steak-eating, high-priced consultants.

McGuinty has said he is absolutely, positively and definitely running again in the 2011 vote. That's why he needs to call in the cops. Only a probe by the Mounties -- the OPP would have a conflict of interest -- will remove this dark cloud.

And if his government has done nothing wrong, they'll be given a clean bill of eHealth.

c h r i s t i n a . b l i z z a r d@ sunmedia.ca