Under attack over spending scandals, Ont. moves to clarify expense rules

[canada-man]

TORONTO — A "summer of scandal" has shaken people's confidence and it's time Ontario's Liberal government was held accountable for expense abuses and untendered contracts given to consultants, the opposition parties charged Monday on the first day of the fall session.

The Progressive Conservatives and NDP also accused Premier Dalton McGuinty and Health Minister David Caplan of misleading the house last June by saying an outside auditing firm would look into problems at eHealth Ontario when the company had never been hired.

"I'd like to ask the premier a question about his summer of scandal," new Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak said as he kicked off the fall legislative sitting, his first as official Opposition Leader.

"Premier, this has to do with your work, your honesty, what you told members of this legislative assembly and what the facts were," said Hudak.

"For weeks we saw you and your health minister dodge, duck and dismiss opposition questions about the eHealth scandal, and you yourself said you retained PricewaterhouseCoopers to investigate."

The New Democrats too went on the attack over expenses and untendered contracts at provincial agencies, and complained the Liberals used their majority to block a legislative committee from investigating eHealth.

"Ontarians want to know all of the facts, but instead they see Liberal members shut down committee investigations and ministers saying third-party auditors are looking at the eHealth scandal even though they haven't been hired," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

"Why is it that everyone is held accountable for this mess but the premier and his cabinet?"

There was no intention to mislead the legislature about an outside review of eHealth by PricewaterhouseCoopers, said McGuinty, who insisted it was an honest mistake on his part.

"It was certainly my understanding that PWC had been retained," he said. "There is no nefarious plot afoot as my friend might intimate."

Caplan said later that the government had directed eHealth's board of directors last May to engage PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the agency did meet with the auditing firm to discuss terms of reference for the work but never formally hired them.

The government decided to scrap the third-party review of eHealth in July after provincial Auditor General Jim McCarter pointed out his examination of the troubled agency would duplicate much of the work that PricewaterhouseCoopers was being asked to do, said Caplan.

McGuinty was on the defensive Monday even before the first question period of the session, moving to blunt opposition attacks by announcing clearer expense rules for agencies, boards and commissions.

After months of reports about unacceptable expense claims at eHealth, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. and other agencies, the government boiled 25 pages of rules down to two, announced McGuinty.

"The steps our government is taking today will make it easier for everyone to know the rules and harder for anyone to break the rules." he said.

"Just to be clear, we're not changing the rules. We're just removing as any potential excuse that 'we didn't understand the rules."'

There will also be mandatory, computer-based training on expense rules for all 80,000 direct provincial employees and workers at the 22 largest agencies.

The opposition welcomed the clarified rules, but again demanded Caplan's resignation because of $16 million in untendered contracts awarded by eHealth and expense claims by consultants earning $2,700 a day who billed taxpayers extra for snacks and drinks.

The government must release information about all untendered contracts awarded by provincial agencies, boards and commissions, said Horwath.

"The government needs to blow open the records in terms of the last two years at least with untendered contracts," she said.

"The premier likes to talk about transparency, (well) we need to see the transparency."

The Tories and New Democrats have also been pushing for a cabinet minister to walk the plank over a similar problem with expense abuses at Ontario Lottery and Gaming, which saw the government fire the corporation's CEO, Kelly McDougald, in August.

The firing raised eyebrows because it came after the government paid Sara Kramer, the heavily criticized CEO of eHealth Ontario, $315,000 to leave her post in the midst of the scandal that rocked her agency.

McDougald announced Friday that she was launching a wrongful dismissal suit against the Ontario government that one source said asked for between $8 million and $9 million in damages.

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090914/090914_agencies/20090914/?hub=CP24Home

 

[shakenbake]

Too little, too late. The Fiberals have been asleep at the wheel. Hopefully, the voting public will remember it all atthe next Provincial election.

 

[bullwinkle]

Should'nt there be some criminal indictment forth-coming soon ??

This is really maddening :-(

 

[train]

Hopefully the voting public will also remember Tim Hudak is a Mike Harris clone.

Yes let's hope they do. Harris the only premier in the last 4 or 5 that actually did what he said he was going to do.

Seriously after 2 terms of screwing the pooch and watching idlely as Ontario falls behind Quebec in employment for the first time in history why would anyone vote for McSquint again?

I actually think they bungled the OLG firing and the former CEO will make them look like idiots in court. Unless there was something else more serious going on. She's partly paying for the e-health scandal which was far worse.


The reported expenses were only really bad in a couple of instances and they weren't her expense reports. If you want to hire a CEO to check executive expense reports you may not find a long list of applicants. The worst sounding thing was hiring Caldwell for executive search without tendering. Not a firing "with cause" offense.

Caplan is the one that should go first. Is there a more incompetent minister in recent history?

There should be an internal audit service for all Government owned corporations to check expenses and contracts as a matter of routine.

 

[train]

And after he did "what he said he was going to do" he never hung around to fight an election based on his record in office - he bailed out of politics. (because he knew he would never get re-elected.)

Let's stick to the facts there iamme, Harris was elected to a second term in 1999.

 

[train]

Really ? Harris resigned in 2002. Can you get no facts correct

This conversation has become totally irrelevant to the original post except to correct you on a matter of fact when you go off-topic to take a pot shot at a non-Liberal. This regularly ocurrs when you have nothing on topic to contribute. My apologies to Canada-Man for contributing to the drivel pile.

 

[guelph]

Harris the only premier in the last 4 or 5 that actually did what he said he was going to do.

.

YA drop Ontario in the shitter with his sale of assets. False balanced budgets what a bunch of bullshit

Sell capital assets to apply to current assets what a dumb shit

Budgeting for unidentified in year savings -- that's a brilliant way to balance a budget.

Cut budgets for nurses in hospitals to the point that there was no depth to cover illnessess


He did so much damage that can't be restored with the stroke of a pen.

 

[oldjones]

Was there ever a time, or an organization where those with expense account privileges didn't use them as if they were personal entitlemants? Don't those companies we gave all the tax-money to treat them as exactly that—remuneration?

Only thing new here is the accounts—and the Big Bank Big Bonuses—are getting published, and firing up resentment from us left-behind sack-holders. Thus the botched firing of the OLG CEO to appease the mob.

What we haven't seen is real moves towards real changes: like freedom of info laws that work w/o having to fight for every scrap of info, like more independent auditors and watchdogs who report to us, and who can follow our money wherever the pols send it or spend it.

It's our money, it's our information, it's our government, it's time we weren't treated like innocent babes or seen as a malicious enemy.

 

[OddSox]

CEO is now suing for $8.5 million and has a good chance of winning. Way to go Dalton - guess you fixed that problem!

 

[james t kirk]

Why is it that people get so fucking worked up about expenses?

It's just a giant ploy. You want to get rid of someone, dig out their old expense claims and you will find something that you can go "AH HA" caught you renting a room at the Royal York, who do you think you are?" Better yet if the guy pay per viewed a porno in his room. Fucking jackpot there boy.

I read about these so called lavish expense claims and it was chicken shit frankly. If one is doing business over dinner, a bottle of wine is not out of the question.

I would say that the gov't needs a clear set of rules on expense claims - hotels, meals, alcohol, entertainment, etc. But let's be realistic. If the head of OLG wants to stay at the Sutton Place as opposed to the Comfort Inn on Kingston Road - then so be it. The position warrants that ability.

 

[train]

CEO is now suing for $8.5 million and has a good chance of winning. Way to go Dalton - guess you fixed that problem!

Did you see the write-up today in the newspaper of what she claims happened? If have of it is true she's going to win......and easily. This has to stick to Droolin' Dalton and Duncan.

 

[OddSox]

Why is it that people get so fucking worked up about expenses?

It's just a giant ploy. You want to get rid of someone, dig out their old expense claims and you will find something that you can go "AH HA" caught you renting a room at the Royal York, who do you think you are?" Better yet if the guy pay per viewed a porno in his room. Fucking jackpot there boy.

I read about these so called lavish expense claims and it was chicken shit frankly. If one is doing business over dinner, a bottle of wine is not out of the question.

I would say that the gov't needs a clear set of rules on expense claims - hotels, meals, alcohol, entertainment, etc. But let's be realistic. If the head of OLG wants to stay at the Sutton Place as opposed to the Comfort Inn on Kingston Road - then so be it. The position warrants that ability.

As a government operation OLG is subject to the government regulations on expenses, which specifically state where and when you can bill for meals, alcohol, travel etc. OLG tried to have special exemptions for themselves a couple of years back but they were turned down.

 

[oldjones]

But firing the CEO 'for cause' when some of the expenses cited pre-date her hiring is hardly good administration. Looks more like vindictiveness, panic or picking a victime to execute, "pour encourager les autres". And what's the point of arm'length crown corporations when the only shareholder keeps micro-managing? Any bets McDougald wins in court or the Gov settles up generously?

It's not just Ontario that needs to get serious about expenses and entitlements, it's the whole of business. Why would a swivel servant stint herself on a road trip, when the contracted consultant doesn't then passes on the tab? Why would the consultant spend modestly when her boss's country club fees and gym membership are expensed as part of her pay, and we don't even have to go as far as $6000 shower curtains and interest-free mortgage loans. Does anyone imagine the expenses of the MInister who fired the OLG boss wouldn't show stuff that no ordinary employee gets comped for?

It's a culture, not a crime.

 

[train]

It was reported in her statement of claim that she was ordered by McSquint to fire the VP Finance and any one other exec of her choice on a with cause basis. She reviewed the case of the VP Finance with their legal council who strongly advised that the was no legal cause for the dismissal but that OLG could do whatever they wanted on a "without cause" basis.

She informed Duncan and McSquint of this and that based on this legal advice. She was informed that eiother she do what they told her to do or she would be canned with cause.

 

[oldjones]

Seems to come down to 'cause' being: Failure to execute a direct order, vs. the defence of: It was not a legal order. And had she caved, it would be the VP Finance now suing.

Either way the pols are reaping (and we're paying for) the naive trust that an arm's length corporation in a money-machine environment could somehow regulate itself all squeaky-clean like we want. That compounded by the kind of 'good ol' boys together' hiring practices that just assume we all play by the same rules 'so we don't have to spell things out doe we?'

Gambling may be legal, but 'something for nothing' is the credo of crooks, and playing nicey-nicey won't work. OLG needs a suspicious, gimlet-eyed guy like Marin at the top, not someone who's so punctilious about treating her underlings justly that the corp itself is compromised.

But McG's Cabinet sure needs some remedial: How To Hire And Fire sessions. Talk about the right move done badly.

 

[Bearlythere]

Lets get one thing straight. The sleaze that is the OLG wasn't just bad, it was shameful. For two terms now McGuinty looked the other way when the OLG had their scandal over false tickets and fraud on the part of people selling the tickets. He did NOTHING to clean up the OLG. His government financed a legal campaign to brow beat a cancer survivor in his 80's into just going away. During all this negative PR, Dalton or his ministers Never ONCE called the OLG on the carpet publically and said clean up the mess. Now he wants to sack the head of the OLG for expenses? My god they gave away millions in fraudlent prize claims at the OLG and THAT was ok with Dalton, but now he wants a sacrificial lamb for expense claim violations?

Crown corps are infamous for blowing taxpayer dollars, one only has to look at the royality running the CBC for a sad history on THAT one, so why all the sudden did Dalton get religion here and try to clean up the OLG by firing its head? Hell, that should have been vigourous and more than just the heads back when they were making a PR disaster out of their inept investigation into the lottery frauds.

As usual, Dalton is a a day late and a dollar short on this one.

Harris had a campaign slogan " Dalton McGuinty? he just isn't up to the job" and Mike was right.

Mike wasn't the best premier in the world, and the Ernie Eve's cuddly Tories were ripe for the picking when they messed up the books in the aftermath of Harris' second term, but Mike did change the direction financially of the province in this first term for the better. The tax rates and level of regulation in this province were changed radically for the better, so whatever issues one may have with his second term, or the ineptness of Ernie afterwards, one has to admit that the province was still better off than when Bob Rae was around. Come to think of it, even Dalton's dopes are still ahead of when Bob Rae was running the show.

Scary, and Bob Rae still wants to be PM......