AHS contract allegations bridging partisan divide
Leaked memo from Infrastructure Minister Pete Guthrie shows some Cabinet members still have a grip on "common sense".
United in a call for action? Say it isn’t so.
Until yesterday, the only people who were publicly sounding the alarm were deemed “left” or “NDP”, or “AHS fatcats”.
NDP leader Naheed Nenshi held a press conference early Friday afternoon. He places the blame on the Premier. She should have known what was going on in her government. If she did know what was allegedly going on, she should resign. If she didn’t know, she’s not competent to be leading the government, and should resign.
He also took aim at Health Minister Adriana LaGrange. If she did what is alleged, she should resign. If she didn’t inform the premier at any stage of this unfolding drama, she failed in her duty to the Premier, and should resign.
I can’t say I disagree with that. And since the Premier has been clear that she was “not involved in any wrongdoing,” then it stands to reason that the Premier is already admitting Mr. Nenshi’s last accusation is a fact.
On Tuesday, February 11, the Premier attended a Cabinet meeting, virtually. During that meeting, according to the memo from Infrastructure Minister Pete Guthrie, there was a recommendation made to move Health Minister Adriana LaGrange into another, unrelated, portfolio until the investigation into Ms. Mentzelopolous’ allegations could be completed.
It wasn’t necessarily even a bold recommendation — there is no real penalty to Ms. LaGrange financially, or even a suggestion that the Premier no longer has confidence in her Minister (and the Premier has assured us multiple times that she still has confidence in Adriana LaGrange; even “full confidence in the health minister”) — it is simply a recognition of the seriousness of these allegations.
And the allegations are very serious.
They’re alleging fraud.
With public funds.
In normal times, Albertans, let alone Conservative ones, do not like to hear that public funds are going to government cronyism, and they really don’t like to hear that it may be more than half a billion dollars to someone who provided Ministers of the Crown, and the Premier, with swanky playoff seats while Premier Danielle Smith moaned about “an affordability crisis” in the province.
And don’t even get me started on how angry they would be if, hypothetically, it turned out those tickets were paid for with more inflated contracts from AHS that the Health Minister approved with a Ministerial Order despite allegedly being told that the contracts should be reviewed due to inconsistencies with other contracts for the same provision of services.
Ms. Smith reminded Albertans on her somewhat regularly-scheduled radio program, Your Province Your Premier, that AHS has signed more than 50 of these contracts for Chartered Surgical Facilities.
Wow! More than 50! That’s helpful context Premier!
More than 50 had been approved and the CEO of AHS flagged an issue with one.
Just one.
And then the Health Minister stepped in to override those issues.
Now that’s newsworthy.
“Run government like a business”
I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase before.
Here’s what a private business does if something like this happens: they suspend the person who is alleged by a credible source to have committed the fraud.
There’s not even a press conference about it first, it’s just an immediate action the company takes.
They remove the person who is alleged to have committed the fraud so that, if an investigation determines they were in fact committing fraud, those left behind are not responsible if the person continues committing fraud, after it was already alleged they were doing so.
Private industry isn’t like being elected — they aren’t given a free-for-all to commit abuses and misappropriate funds without being held accountable until the next election date. But I digress.
Next, they launch an investigation into those allegations.
In some cases, they will issue a stop work order while the investigation proceeds.
This is not only done to protect the company, but also to ensure that the investigation is not used as a stalling tactic; legal doesn’t like not knowing what they need to be preparing for.
If needed, they would then bring in other people, like legal, and potentially file criminal charges.
Many of us in this province have a UCP MLA. Reach out to them, cc the Premier’s Office (premier@gov.ab.ca), and the Official Opposition (oppositionleader@assembly.ab.ca), and let them know if you think they should be urging Minister LaGrange, and her staff named in the allegations, to be removed from their posts until an investigation is complete.
Holding onto the weakest link for dear life?
According to the statement of claim from former AHS CEO — also former Executive Director of the Alberta Medical Association, Alberta EMS provisional lead appointed by Dr. John Cowell, and Deputy Minister of Treasury Board and Finance under Finance Minister Travis Toews — Athana Mentzelopolous, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, along with her closest staff, may be knee deep in contract and procurement fraud on the people of Alberta.
The allegations are part of a wrongful dismissal claim filed by Ms. Mentzelopolous on February 12, and have not been proven in court.
For reasons known only to the Premier herself (and perhaps her circle of political advisors who are making bank on the government-funded salaries, panels, and committees), she has decided to allow LaGrange and her allegedly corrupt AF staff to continue leading the government’s health department and whatever is left of Alberta Health Services.
They’ve circled the wagons around the alleged culprits.
The Premier has decided that every Cabinet Minister, and caucus member, along with each of their most ardent supporters, should hitch their wagon to the fate of one Minister — who has been credibly accused of taking active measures to defraud Albertans — the Premier has chosen to defend on their behalf.
Almost as if the Premier has decided that it’s not just about one Minister.
The Premier seems to think that in protecting one, she is protecting her caucus, and her Cabinet; even herself.
And that makes me think there’s a lot more to be uncovered.
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In my career as a refining technical expert, I evaluated vendors for long term service agreements and for individual equipment proposals. Dollar values ranged from 5 to 7 figures on probably hundreds of occasions over 2+ decades. What sort of gifts and entertainment could I accept in this role? Nothing more than a lunch or dinner of nominal value that could be reciprocated. If I’d have accepted hockey tickets, let alone Stanley Cup playoff box seats, I’d have been fired. No question. No exaggeration. My company took these ethical issues extremely seriously. And somehow I was still able to do my job effectively. The premier upped the limit of acceptable graft as essentially “keeping with the times” and part of “fostering good relationships as part of the role and responsibility”. That’s complete and utter horseshit that does not at all align with what is acceptable in the private sector. Nor is it required to do the job successfully. Even her staunch supporters should have a problem with what is transpiring.
What strikes me is that a significant part of the response from both the Premier and Minister has been that AHS is pushing back against private surgical centres. But that's not the case, it was AHS pushing back against contracts that were OVERPRICED, not the fact that there were services being contracted. Athana was hired by the board put in place by this government and lauded by John Cowell when she was hired. Yet at some point she launched an investigation. So that totally plays against any narrative that this is someone in AHS dragging their feet. If I were part of Nenshis team, I would spend more time talking about that.