Reason # 12 why Dalton McGuinty must go!

The Cancer Care Ontario scandal.

Cancer Care Ontario shows the provincial agency handed out consultant contracts in some of the same questionable ways as eHealth.

It gave a consulting firm $18.7 million in deals over two years, some in the form of so-called "follow-on" agreements, a practice that allowed them to be added on to current contracts without being opened to bids. The audit found the number of follow-ons "excessive" — with at least 26 recorded.

In the two years examined by the audit, about 60 per cent of some $30-million in contracts examined were doled out to three big vendors.

The audit noted that Cancer Care Ontario had no policy for buying radiation therapy equipment for hospitals, resulting in $3.5 million in orders that didn't follow proper tender procedures and in six-figure price jumps.

Contracts for a number of radiation treatment machines rose above the original ceiling price by $300,000 to $500,000. In one instance, a contract price rose by $1 million, because the machine had to be customized to fit into a room.

Another time, extra equipment plus user fees were tacked on, causing a $861,000 increase above the original agreement.

The agency also appeared to have a recurring problem with documenting consultant expenses, with only six per cent of $136,000 in out-of-expense claims accompanied by the necessary receipts.

Other revelations in the documents included:

• Details of some contracts were ironed out after the deal was done.
• One contract ballooned to almost six times its original maximum worth of $3.5 million — to $20.2 million — in a process that lacked proper approvals from the CEO.
• Contracts without tender accounted for 49 per cent of examined contracts for non-capital goods and non-consulting expenses, such as computer equipment, software and equipment rental.
• About $1.6-million worth was paid out over 14 invoices to a company with no written contract.
• At one point, the director of finance had the authority to create, approve and review purchase orders.
• Several employees recruited were offered between $17,000-23,000 over the maximum salary range.
• CCO employee files were kept in an unlocked cabinet accessible to unauthorized employees.
• Even though policy forbade paying for parties, Cancer Care paid for two staff picnics, a farewell function and gifts for staff, one holiday party and a baby shower.

To read more click this link.

For this reason McGuinty must go! The McGuinty Liberal government is incompetent.

October 6th please vote and please vote for the candidate most likely to unseat the Liberal!