EDMONTON — After two years, Auditor General Doug Wylie’s report An Examination of Community Laboratory Services (Contract with DynaLIFE) was tabled in the Legislature yesterday afternoon. Friends of Medicare spent the evening reviewing the 48-page report, which raises considerable concerns.
The report makes it clear that government interference from the Minister and Department of Health undermined and disregarded the procurement process. Privatization was pushed forward, in spite of concerns raised by Alberta Health Services and other staff, and was pursued even after it was clear the stated goal of cost savings was unattainable.
“The Auditor General’s report is damning. It shows that the Alberta government interfered in the procurement process with an ideological agenda to privatize labs in spite of expert advice, in spite of the lack of business case, and in spite of the fact they knew going in that it wouldn’t save money,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “The result was over 125 million public health care dollars wasted, and service disruptions that left Albertans anxiously waiting weeks for basic lab services.”
The report opens with a section entitled “Access to Information Challenges by the Auditor General,” outlining the considerable challenges that limited the scope of the report. It explains that their office faced delays in completing interviews, and that key information was highly redacted, missing, or in some cases, destroyed against the Auditor General’s request to preserve evidence. When questioned by media about these challenges with accessing information, the auditor general stated, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my 30-year career here."
“It is completely unacceptable that Albertans had to wait over two years for this report because of delays and restrictions on the Auditor General’s work,” said Gallaway. “But this is no fault of the Auditor General; that blame falls squarely on the government as they continually attempt to dodge accountability and decrease transparency when it comes to their decisions to privatize our public health care services. This government has repeatedly shown they can’t be trusted to act in Albertans’ best interests, which is why we continue to call for a public inquiry into surgical procurement and other health care contracts.”
The report found that:
Alberta taxpayers paid $125 million in non-value-added costs for government-initiated laboratory procurements that were abandoned or unsuccessful. In addition, $32 million was paid by AHS to acquire DynaLIFE’s remaining assets and liabilities at fair value following the termination of its contract (2023).
“This is the classic story of privatization in health care: when a for-profit company fails to deliver, the public system is left to pick up the pieces. It’s time for our government to finally learn this lesson, and focus on using public health care dollars for public health care delivery, not funneling them into profit for corporations,” concluded Gallaway.
Friends of Medicare will be watching closely for the Auditor General's ongoing reports on the allegations of overpriced private health care contracts and possible government interference in both surgical procurement and Recovery Alberta, as their office attempts to complete them prior to the end of Doug Wylie's term this April.
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