An auditor general's report due next week is expected to come down hard on the wasteful spending and mismanagement at eHealth Ontario and its predecessor agency.

CTV Toronto has unearthed more examples of the types of misspending that Auditor General Jim McCarter is likely to highlight when his report becomes public:

  • eHealth Ontario paid an on-call consultant $42,000 for six months of work
  • it paid $2.5 million per month to maintain inactive or underutilized network circuits
  • a $687,000 contract got approved by someone who did not have signing authority
  • a consultant saw their pay go to $1,500 per day from $1,100 without approval; eHealth paid anyway
  • another consultant was to be paid at $1,300 per day, but billed $1,500; eHealth officials noticed but paid the extra $46,000
  • eHealth had a $1-million deal with a recruitment firm to hire 15 senior managers. Most of the money was paid up-front, yet the firm only helped fill five positions. No money was given back
  • eHealth allowed consultants to hire other consultants -- who then did so from within their own firms

CTV's Paul Bliss said a source tells him McCarter had reached two explosive conclusions:

  • allegations of favouritism surrounding the awarding of contracts were true
  • about two-thirds of all contracts issued were sole-sourced

At Queen's Park

Opposition politicians are pounced on the leaked details on how Ontario has spent $1 billion since 2002 to develop an electronic health records system yet has little to show for the money.

"The one billion dollars lost into the abyss of mismanagement, and Ontario still doesn't have an eHealth system," NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Wednesday in the legislature's question period.

"Meanwhile, 1,200 nursing positions have been axed. Local emergency wards have closed."

Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa McLeod added: "Twenty-five thousand dollars for a speech is unacceptable. And the waste and mismanagement at eHealth and OLG is unacceptable."

Fellow Tory MPP Robert Runciman suggested that one reason Premier Dalton McGuinty has protected Health Minister David Caplan so far is "because half his cabinet is implicated in the rot at eHealth."

McGuinty said "we encountered some problems at eHealth. We have acted on those. We have put in place new measures."

He highlighted the government's move to end the practice of untendered contact and noted that he asked McLarter to review the eHealth file.

The Toronto Star reported that the probe by McLarter blasts the Liberal government for worsening problems that began under the previous Progressive Conservative administration.

It said the report will make four major recommendations, focusing mainly on tighter spending and accountability controls.

The government will come under criticism for a $30 million untendered contract with IBM. Bliss said cabinet ministers in the McGuinty government approved that deal.

Top eHealth executives walked the plank, in part over sole-sourced contracts, but Bliss noted no cabinet minister has yet paid with their job for the problems at eHealth.

The move to put Ontario's medical records online began in 2002 under the Progressive Conservative government of then-premier Mike Harris. The Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA) eventually spent almost $650 million before the McGuinty government wound it down.

eHealth was the replacement agency. The government had given eHealth a mandate to make quick progress. As a result, the agency spent heavily on consultants, with many being hired without being subject to any competitive bidding.

Sarah Kramer, eHealth's CEO, departed in June after a political firestorm. Dr. Allan Hudson, chair of the eHealth board, followed soon after.

Two eHealth board members quietly resigned in recent weeks.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss and files from the Toronto Star