CALGARY – The Wildrose party is calling out Alberta Health Services managers and consultants for racking up “outrageous” cell phone bills totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A Freedom of Information (FOIP) request examining the billing between June 2013 and November 2014 showed over $825,000 was spent on wireless device bills, including 875 instances of employee bills over $500 per month and 134 instances of bills over $1,000. One AHS manager claimed a monthly bill of $10,750; an AHS director reached $12,153.
“While patients are faced with increasing wait times for surgeries and access to emergency rooms, it’s outrageous that senior AHS managers and directors were levelling these types of massive cell phone bills on taxpayers,” said Wildrose Leader Heather Forsyth in a release. “Sadly, this is just the part of the AHS culture fostered by the PC government that has resulted in literally billions of dollars wasted over the past several years.”
Information and privacy coordinator Derek Wojtas noted in the FOIP request that “no specific mobile device usage policy existed prior to February 4, 2014 as staff utilized the more general IT acceptable use policies.”
AHS said Friday a new policy for cellphone and mobile device use had been approved and implemented partly in response to the findings. AHS acknowledged the findings proved a “lack of clarity” on who got which devices and “insufficient controls especially in relation to using phones outside of Canada.
“The numbers are very high,” said AHS president and CEO Vickie Kaminski in a release. “They are too high, and this demonstrated to me that we needed to take clear and decisive action to bring down these costs and make sure that all AHS staff and physicians with AHS-paid mobile devices are accountable and using their devices appropriately.”
AHS said in some cases there were “valid” explanations–such as a transplant physician who was treating patients remotely–but also included employees who took their phones on vacation. Staff with “significant” bills are being contacted and some may have to pay back the money if the charges were due to personal use.
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