The eHealth Ontario saga widened Monday with revelations that a consultant was paid $30,000 for 78 hours work, and the son of board chairman Alan Hudson worked for a firm closely connected to the agency before leaving for IBM.**********
Dr. Ballem said she had no idea a staff member at eHealth had questioned her invoice for the 78 hours she worked over the three-month period ending last December. She was paid $3,000 a day, making her one of the more generously compensated consultants.
UPDATE: Why should Dalton care?
It's not his money...
-- TORONTO -- There are no plans by the Dalton McGuinty government to shuffle Health Minister David Caplan out of his portfolio despite demands from opposition leaders he resign in the wake of the eHealth Ontario spending scandal.It just keeps getting better.
"Caplan continues to have the premier's confidence to help the organization get by this and build on the progress they've made this far," a government source said.
Kramer is not the only high-ranking eHealth exec to be leaving.**********
Allaudin Merali, the high-flying Edmonton-based consultant who billed the agency up to $75,000 a month in fees and expenses, vanished from eHealth's website over the weekend.
eHealth vice-president Deanna Allen said Merali's contract expires at the end of June and is not being renewed.
Merali charged $2,700 a day for his expertise and also billed taxpayers for a rented downtown apartment and trips back to his Edmonton home each weekend.
LAST WORD: Diogenes would be pleased
A consulting firm abruptly terminated its lucrative contract with eHealth Ontario last February after only four weeks on the job, citing delays, wasted time and dysfunctional work plans.*
Well before the scandal erupted over eHealth's lavish spending on consultants, Stevenson Kellogg chose to leave thousands of dollars on the table, rather than continue its association with the organization.
“We terminated the contract because of my severe discontent with most aspects of the work, including the dysfunctional work plans, the delays and waste of time, and the personal styles of the team leaders.”