Senior cabinet ministers rubberstamped a $30 million untendered contract with IBM for eHealth Ontario because government officials feared the funding was at risk if they put the work out for a competitive bid, according to secret documents obtained by the Star.
Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government has steadfastly refused to release the 63-page contract with its 132 pages in background documents. Opposition and media attempts to gain a glimpse at the inner workings of eHealth through freedom-of-information requests have so far been thwarted.
But late Wednesday, the Star unearthed a copy of the contract, as well as internal eHealth documents that further illuminate what Auditor General Jim McCarter will outline next week in his report to the Legislature on the spending scandal at the electronic health records agency.
The IBM deal is the “smoking gun” needed to prove the McGuinty government at its highest levels knew and was complicit in untendered and lucrative contracts being handed out freely at eHealth Ontario, said Progressive Conservative MPP Bob Runciman.
“Their hands are dirty on this, they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and at some point in time the premier is going to have to take responsibility, his ministers are going to have to take responsibility, for what they did and didn’t do with respect to eHealth.”
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Updates:
3:44 pm EDT, October 1st, 2009 — WSIB chair Mahoney abused taxpayers’ money: Conservatives
What’s up with the red star? First they lambast McGuinty about the HST now they expose their darling leader in this way. Maybe after years of dropping revenue they have decided to REPORT and not cheerlead.
I may start to read the star.