Auditor reviews ehealth policies, as NDP warns of ‘crisis’ of waste
REGINA Saskatchewan’s provincial auditor is examining ehealth’s conflict of interest policies amid continued NDP warnings about a “crisis” at the agency.
At a public accounts committee Tuesday, auditor Judy Ferguson discussed the ongoing work in response to an NDP motion calling for a special examination of the Crown corporation, which handles IT and record keeping for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA). The agency was embroiled in controversy last year after three employees were fired for taking trips paid for by companies receiving government contracts.
Saskatoon Fairview MLA Vicky Mowat asked Ferguson to investigate ehealth’s “current contract and tendering process, including whether vendor-sponsored travel led to misuse of public resources.”
Saskatchewan Party committee members used their majority to defeat the motion, after Indian Head-milestone MLA Don Mcmorris asked Ferguson to explain what her office is already doing.
Ferguson said she is looking at a number of questions around “ehealth’s policies and procedures to mitigate vendor influence and related conflict of interest” between April 1, 2017, and Jan. 31 of this year.
“Is the code of conduct and conflict of interest framework sound?” she asked during the committee hearing. “Are the policies and procedures for vendor-sponsored travel and training appropriate to avoid vendor influence in procurement decisions?”
She expects to release her findings along with her June report. Mcmorris said the government is satisfied with that. But Mowat wanted to push for a special investigation that would come back sooner and include more focused information.
The NDP told reporters it has received information from government employees, including staff of SHA and ehealth, as well as physicians who formerly worked with the agency and sources inside vendors.
The sources first came to the party in early 2018, according to the NDP. They continued to provide information even after news of last year’s travel scandal, party staffers said. The concerns raised by the NDP, which have not yet been verified by the Leader-post, relate to allegations of a culture of waste at ehealth and extend far beyond vendor-sponsored travel.
“We have had seven whistleblowers come forward with different pieces of information that are concerning to the people of this province about how public money is being spent,” Mowat told reporters on Tuesday.
“There’s a whole list of concerns that have been raised about an organization that is in crisis.”
Ehealth responded in a statement, saying it “takes all allegations of wrongdoing very seriously.” The statement said the agency will continue to work with the auditor in “complete transparency.”
It pointed to work already done since last year’s vendor-sponsored travel controversy, including mandatory code of conduct training, an updated procurement policy and criminal record checks.
Ferguson said her examination was not prompted by allegations conveyed through the NDP. She said her office began the work on its own following a management audit at ehealth relating to the three terminated employees.
She said ehealth’s own audit was relatively “narrow.” The agency is becoming increasingly important, in Ferguson’s view, prompting her to launch a more wide-ranging examination of its code of conduct and conflict of interest framework.
But she said her office is unlikely to delve into the agency’s culture.
“Frankly, it’s hard to audit those areas,” she said.
Cam Swan, the province’s top civil servant as deputy minister to the premier, already has conducted a review of vendor-sponsored travel throughout government. Swan probed every instance of vendor-sponsored travel at ministries, agencies and Crown corporations over the past two years. His report said he found no examples that didn’t comply with government policy.
Released earlier this month, the report recommended policy changes that the province has committed to act on. That will include changes to conflict of interest policy to provide more clarity on vendor relationship and acceptance of gifts, as well as mandatory training for all government employees.
That’s not enough for the NDP. In Mowat’s view, there are still missing pieces of the ehealth puzzle.
“I think there’s still many unanswered questions that we need to get into the bottom of,” she said, “and the provincial auditor wouldn’t be looking into it if that wasn’t the case.”