04 June 2009

Your money, his friends

Who exactly, is on Dalton McGuinty's eHealth team...
Friends, family and former colleagues are all intertwined in the complicated web that is eHealth Ontario's list of preferred contractors.

In the legislature yesterday, PC MPP Tim Hudak described it as "incestuous relationships, the quid pro quo, you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours mentality."

Even a brief review of the list of $5 million in untendered contracts the agency handed out in its first six months of existence reveal the same group of names long connected to CEO Sarah Kramer and board chairMAN Dr. Alan Hudson.

Those include Courtyard Group, led by former University Health Network exec Michael Guerriere, Anzen Consulting, run by Guerriere's wife Miyo Yamashita and Accenture Inc. -- one of whose executives gave a reference to Kramer when she applied for the job.

Hudson once ran the University Health Network, where Guerriere was one of his executives before heading to Cancer Care Ontario in 2002. From there he went on to lead the province's Wait Times Information Strategy and then the eHealth board in 2008.

Kramer worked with Hudson at both Cancer Care and the WTIS.

Guerriere worked under Hudson at the University Health Network and his consulting firm was heavily involved in developing the WTIS.
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