May 19, 2010
PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVES DEMAND GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY
Bureaucrat travel expenses and untendered contracts at Manitoba’s eHealth are shrouded in secrecy: McFadyen
Following on the heels of a $12,000 fee estimate to obtain information on a $1.5-million travel and hospitality expenditure at the University College of the North, the Progressive Conservatives have been hit again with a whopping bill to obtain information on healthcare spending.
“We’ve been told it would take 126 hours - at a cost of $3,780 – to get a list of eHealth bureaucrats who incurred travel expenses last year,” said Progressive Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen. “If it is going to take Health Minister Theresa Oswald’s department 126 hours to tabulate one year’s worth of hotel and dinner receipts for her eHealth bureacrats, then she’s got a major problem on her hands.”
The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives also learned it would take 73 hours and a cost of $2,190 to obtain the list of untendered contracts for Manitoba eHealth.
“The eHealth department has a $47-million budget and virtually no accountability. The public has a right to know where the money is being spent,” said PC Health Critic Myrna Driedger.
The province introduced eHealth as a way to use information technology and innovation to improve patient care and safety, not to give more bureaucrats travel expense accounts, Driedger added.
Hugh McFadyen and the Manitoba PC Caucus would raise the bar on accountability by ensuring proactive disclosure on all travel and hospitality expenses by provincial public bodies.
For more information, please contact:
Rochelle Squires, Acting Director of Media Relations
Manitoba Progressive Conservative Caucus
Tel: (204) 945-5519 Cell: (204) 791-8221
Email: rochelle.squires@leg.gov.mb.ca
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