An ex E Health Ontario Consultant, Allaudin Merali who at one time ran up huge expenses in Ontario in the Capital Health Authority now with an expense account of $346,000 has popped up in Alberta with another scandalous expense account exposure!
Mr. Merali was among the consultants whose expenses and fees helped fuel outcry about overspending and mismanagement at Ontario’s eHealth agency. In 2009, Mr. Merali billed eHealth $2,750 per day for his time, also earning a $75 per diem. He billed seven days a week, with a half-day for Sundays, during one December trip. All told, he billed eHealth over $285,000 over several months, including $24,000 for flights between Edmonton and Toronto and, during a six-day stay at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York hotel, $14.95 for a daily “beverage.”
How much longer will Canadians allow these people to “bleed” their health dollars for their own use instead of using the money for what it is supposed to be used for…………HEALING!
E Health, ORNGE, LHIN’s, Alberta Health Services, not to mention the ones we haven’t heard about yet, appear to being used as a personal credit card by unscrupulous managers for their own personal spending sprees at OUR EXPENSE!
We now see the same “actors” showing up in different Provinces pulling the same scam of ripping massive amounts of tax payers dollars out of a system that should be considered almost “sacred”. In view of this “cross-country rampage of greed” maybe the RCMP could be called in along with a Federal Forensic Accounting team to do a complete audit of both Ontario’s and Alberta’s Health Care System’s books?????
No wonder our Health Care is hurtin’…………………
Lavish-spending Alberta Health CFO quits
August 1st/12
CALGARY — Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) financial boss has resigned as it was revealed he’d racked up an exorbitant $346,000 in expenses.
The move was announced Wednesday ahead of a media outlet revealing information that AHS CFO Allaudin Merali had spent the $346,000 in 146 filings in a role with the Capital Health Authority from 2005-2008.
Merali, who also has a lengthy history of running up huge expense bills with Ontario’s eHealth, was hired as the AHS’s top bean counter last May, after officials there deemed him “the most qualified candidate,” acting CEO Chris Mazurkewich said Wednesday.
Merali’s spending, documented on 778 pages of invoices and receipts, “involved a different order of magnitude” than the AHS had previously understood, he said.
“After reviewing the records, we are concerned, and Mr. Merali agrees, that they will detract from his ability to act as AHS’ Chief Financial Officer.”
The ex-CFO charged nearly $1,600 at one Edmonton restaurant and on one day in July 2006, he expensed $406 at another Edmonton eatery and $180 for taxis.
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Merali, who spent lavishly at health-care conferences, repeatedly charged taxpayers for car washes and gasoline, and expensed $524.86 to replace glass on his Mercedes, while also charging $2,000 to install a phone in the vehicle.
In 2008, he expensed $1,839 at the Edmonton Mayfair Golf Club with no explanation for the AHS.
Mazurkewich told reporters the AHS wasn’t aware of Merali’s spending habits when it hired him last spring.
“We did not go through his expenses when he was employed by capital health,” he said.
As a consultant for eHealth Ontario, he was paid $57,750 for 21 days of work in December 2008 when he billed seven days a week, but only half days ($1,375) for Sundays — and was reimbursed another $10,000 for expenses that month.
In Ontario, Merali’s bills climbed to an average of $76,000 a month in January through March 2009, including $24,000 for flights between Edmonton and Toronto.
Those expenses fuelled a considerable scandal in Ontario.
Minister promises to review Alberta health boss expenses
By: Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
Posted: 12:49 PM
EDMONTON – Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne has promised to get to the bottom of how a senior official was allowed to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for everything from fancy meals to car repairs.
Horne admits he didn’t know about Allaudin Merali’s previous troubles over similar spending when he was a health consultant in Ontario. Nor does he know if the board who hired Merali as chief financial officer for Alberta Health Services knew anything either.
“I’m as much dumbfounded by this as anyone else,” Horne said Thursday, the day after Merali’s sudden resignation just weeks after he was hired by Alberta Health Services and three years after he left Ontario.
Documents show that between 2005 and 2009 — when Merali first worked in Alberta for a health authority that looked after Edmonton and region — he filed expenses totalling $346,000. They included a bill to taxpayers for almost $1,750 to fix his Mercedes when his annual salary was $487,000.
An expert in electronic health data systems, Merali moved to Ontario to consult for that province. Documents later revealed he was among a number of health consultants charging thousands of dollars to taxpayers for meals and perks — in his case $76,000 a month.
Sheila Weatherill ran the Capital Health regional authority that approved Merali’s expenses. She resigned Wednesday night from her current position on the board of Alberta Health Services, the superboard that was formed when the government merged the regional health authorities. It oversees the day-to-day operation of health care and brought Merali back to the province.
That board has some explaining to do, Horne said.
“I don’t want there to be any doubt whatsoever that I am outraged and the government is outraged by what has been revealed here … I want to know what the board knew and what oversight the board provided with respect to this particular hiring and I intend to find out.”
Horne has a long history as a health-care administrator, consultant and bureaucrat. But he said he was unaware of Merali’s involvement in Ontario’s expense account scandal and wasn’t involved in the hiring decision.
“I wasn’t aware of past history in Ontario,” he said.
“I do not oversee the hiring of senior executives of Alberta Health Services. Perhaps there should be a role that involves greater scrutiny in some of these positions.
“Should we have known? Yes.”
Lavish expense claims chase Allaudin Merali out of AHS
BY BILL KAUFMANN ,CALGARY SUN August 1/2012
Alberta Health Services’ financial boss has resigned as it was revealed he’d racked up an exorbitant $346,000 in expenses.
The move was announced Wednesday ahead of a media outlet revealing information that AHS CFO Allaudin Merali had spent the $346,000 in 146 filings in a role with the Capital Health Authority from 2005-2008.
Merali, who also has a lengthy history of running up huge expense bills in Ontario, was hired as the AHS’s top bean counter last May, after officials there deemed him “the most qualified candidate,” acting CEO Chris Mazurkewich said Wednesday.
Merali’s spending, documented on 778 pages of invoices and receipts, “involved a different order of magnitude” than the AHS had previously understood, he said.
“After reviewing the records, we are concerned, and Mr. Merali agrees, that they will detract from his ability to act as AHS’ Chief Financial Officer.”
The ex-CFO charged nearly $1,600 at one Edmonton restaurant and on one day in July, 2006, he expensed $406 at another Edmonton eatery, and $180 for taxis.
Merali, who spent lavishly at health care conferences, repeatedly charged taxpayers for car washes and gasoline and expensed $524.86 to replace glass on his Mercedes, while also charging $2,000 to install a phone in the vehicle.
In 2008, he expensed $1,839 at the Edmonton Mayfair Golf Club with no explanation for the AHS.
Mazurkewich told reporters the AHS wasn’t aware of Merali’s spending habits when it hired him last spring.
“We did not go through his expenses when he was employed by capital health,” he said.
As a consultant for eHealth Ontario, he was paid $57,750 for 21 days of work in December, 2008 when he billed seven days a week, but only half days ($1,375) for Sundays — and was reimbursed another $10,000 for his expenses that month.
In Ontario, Merali’s bills climbed to an average of $76,000 a month in January through March 2009, including $24,000 for flights between Edmonton and Toronto.
Those expenses fuelled a considerable scandal in that province.
The Big Green Lie 