Premier requires immediate motion by Alberta’s auditor basic into well being spending, contracting

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith stated she shall be asking for an expedited assessment from the province’s auditor basic, who stated this week that he’s inspecting “concerns or allegations related to contracting and potential conflicts of interest” inside the province’s well being authority.

“We need to get to the bottom of this issue quickly to identify any potential wrongdoing, correct it, and address it appropriately,” Smith stated in an announcement Saturday morning. 

This marked Smith’s first touch upon the difficulty since Auditor Basic Doug Wylie introduced his investigation on Thursday. 

It got here after the Globe and Mail reported on a sequence of allegations stemming from a letter it obtained from the lawyer of Athana Mentzelopoulos, who was lately terminated as AHS’s CEO. A spokesperson for Wylie has stated events had been knowledgeable of his investigation on Jan. 31.

CBC Information has been unable to acquire a duplicate of the letter. Mentzelopoulos has not commented. 

The Globe reported that the letter included claims of political interference and allegations that Mentzelopoulos was wrongfully dismissed, shedding her jobs days earlier than she was scheduled to fulfill with Wylie to debate her personal investigation into Alberta’s procurement contracts and offers for personal surgical services.

Wylie has stated his investigation will deal with AHS, however might prolong to different organizations past it and the well being ministry. Particularly, the probe is presently targeted on chartered surgical services, treatment (ibuprofen or acetaminophen) and COVID-19 private safety gear.

The federal government has been critiqued for its PPE buying early within the pandemic, and a controversial $70-million deal to purchase kids’s ache treatment from Turkey-based Atabay Prescription drugs, which was made throughout a North American scarcity.

Wylie’s investigation will even assessment the effectiveness of administration and management processes — together with governance and oversight, he stated.

The Alberta authorities disbanded your entire AHS board in late January, appointing an official administrator as a substitute. 

On Thursday, an AHS spokesperson stated the company is reviewing its procurement procedures and processes because it pertains to Mentzelopoulos’ allegations, and has paused awarding new contracts that embrace events concerned in its probe.

On Saturday, Smith stated she has adopted information in regards to the investigation and finds the allegations troubling.

She stated she has already directed her officers to be totally clear with Wylie. 

She specified, “As premier, I was not involved in any wrongdoing.”

Smith additionally has requested the AHS inner assessment to even be accomplished as quickly as potential, and have its findings delivered to her, she stated. 

Opposition NDP Chief Naheed Nenshi criticized Smith’s feedback in his personal assertion Saturday morning. 

He referred to as for a full RCMP investigation and an impartial judicial-led public inquiry, and stated the NDP has written to the RCMP, Wylie and Alberta’s ethics commissioner to request investigations.

Smith’s assertion reveals that the premier is taking the scenario significantly, stated Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal College in Calgary.

However it nonetheless leaves some questions unanswered, he stated, comparable to why Mentzelopoulos was fired after simply signing a contract in December 2023, and why the AHS board — whose members Smith’s authorities appointed — was dismissed.

“That’s what you get when you get a written statement instead of a press conference. There are a lot of lingering questions here,” Bratt stated.

Bratt believes a public inquiry is feasible, but it surely hinges on what the auditor basic finds and recommends, he stated.

“There are, clearly, a lot of ethics questions and there’s a lot of smoke. We’ll have to see if there’s any fire,” he stated