Judge Raymond Wyant doesn’t seem pleased with his own report into the health procurement scandal over “Turkish Tylenol” and private surgeries.
The retired Manitoba jurist found conflicts of interest involving procurement officials, but no blame for Premier Danielle Smith, her ministers or staff.
But Wyant also described a massive dump of 2.25 million documents, and restraints that kept him from getting the whole truth out of officials.
“Unlike a public inquiry, this investigation did not have the power to subpoena or hear testimony under oath,” he writes.
“As a result, people had the opportunity to decline to be interviewed. Some did.
“Further, because testimony was not under oath, people could decline to answer questions. Some did.
“Further, because there was not the kind of vigorous examination and cross-examination that would take place in a formal setting, I could not come to conclusions on the credibility of information provided verbally by interviewees.”
He felt most people were telling the truth.
“However, there were occasions where I was left with the impression that might not be the case, nor that full and complete information was being provided.”
Wyant did not interview any elected officials.
He also recounted how he was buried under what may be the greatest data dump in government history.
Premier Danielle Smith, with then-minister of health Jason Copping (right) and Margaret Wing, CEO, Alberta Pharmacists’ Association, providing an update in Edmonton on the government’s efforts to import children’s pain and fever medications on March 20, 2023.
“When over two-and-a-quarter-million documents were received for this investigation, they were sent in multiple intervals and were not indexed or organized in any form.”
The judge had to hire a company to catalogue and index the materials.
The contracts in question were signed by Alberta Health Services.
That allows Smith to point to the health authority.
“When elected officials request products or services be procured for the public, we trust that there are rigorous processes in place to ensure taxpayer dollars are respected and that those processes be followed,” the premier said in a statement.
“We also expect that any conflicts of interest, real or perceived, are properly disclosed and protected against.
“Clearly, AHS decision-makers did not do so in these cases.”
The fly in this soothing ointment is that Athana Mentzelopoulos, the former head of AHS, triggered this whole uproar when she had suspicions and launched her own investigation.
Athana Mentzelopoulos has filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful dismissal over her removal as CEO of Alberta Health Services on Jan. 8.
She was fired. Then she sued for wrongful dismissal and has since been accused by government lawyers of gross incompetence.
But it turns out she was right about several things. Wyant confirms that senior procurement officials were working for AHS when they also had ties to the companies involved in both the medication purchase and the private surgery contracts.
Wyant concludes: “Mr. Jitenda Prasad was in a conflict of interest.” He brokered the medication deal for AHS while associated with MHCare, which made the purchase from a Turkish company.
At this point, the government has paid $50 million for which it has received nothing. The children’s medication that did arrive proved substandard and difficult to use.
Prasad at different times worked for both AHS and Alberta Health, a government department.
It’s disingenuous for Smith to say that AHS is solely responsible for all the problems.
AHS no longer has any independence. At all times it is overseen and wholly controlled by government.
Smith’s contempt for the authority is clear. She is systematically breaking it down. In that sense, the scandal has been useful for her.
Mentzelopoulos said Friday afternoon: “It is clear from Judge Wyant’s findings that the procurement and governance concerns I was investigating during my tenure at AHS were serious and needed to be fully investigated.”
Alberta’s Auditor General Doug Wylie in 2019.
She noted that she was fired two days before she was scheduled to take her suspicions to auditor general Doug Wylie.
Unlike the judge, Wylie has full powers to subpoena and compel testimony under oath. The governing act says this applies to “anyone.”
Wylie is an officer of the whole legislature, not the government, and has shown he won’t be pushed around. He is currently investigating the procurement scandal.
Would he dare compel the premier and her health minister? Bet your boots he would.
His report is expected sometime early next year.
This isn’t over.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald
X and Bluesky: @DonBraid