CALGARY – Alberta Health Services (AHS) will start posting executive and Board member expenses on its website Monday, December 3. The decision comes after mounting pressure following the expense claim controversy involving former Capital Health authority executive Allaudin Merali.
AHS says the expense information will be posted monthly at http://www.albertahealthservices.ca and will include the expense reports for members of the AHS Board, the President and CEO, direct reports to the CEO and several other senior positions.
AHS says the expenses of staff at the Senior Vice President level and above will be included in these monthly postings.
Monday’s information will include expenses claimed for October 2012, and November expense claims will be posted by December 14. After that, AHS says a monthly expense report will be posted by the tenth business day of each month.
Merali left his position as CFO with AHS in August, after his expense claims with Capital Health were made public. Documents showed 146 expenses from 2005-2008 for things like pricey dinners, membership dues, car repairs, alcohol, and hotel visits totaling $346,208.
Alberta Health Services Board member Sheila Weatherill, who signed off on many of Merali’s claims, offered her resignation to Health Minister Fred Horne shortly after.
“I am concerned, and I understand why Albertans are concerned about these expenses,” said Horne in August. “They appear to be a very extravagant use of their tax dollars.”
Opposition parties called on the province to disband the AHS, and stressed more needs to be done to change Alberta’s health care system.
“I recommend that this government and Premier Redford dissolve the AHS board immediately, that they order a forensic audit of Capital Health and AHS books,” said Liberal leader Raj Sherman.
“I think what we have to do,” said Horne, “is to go forward from where we are, and that isn’t to suggest that we don’t acknowledge what happened here, that we don’t try to get to the bottom of what could have happened, but really the only option is to continue to move forward,” added Horne in the summer.
One week after Merali’s expenses were made public, the Redford government announced a new initiative to improve transparency in relation to travel and expense claims.
In early September, the premier unveiled an expense disclosure policy that requires ministers, associate ministers, members of caucus, senior officials, deputy ministers, executive managers and their staff to disclose their travel and expense claims online.
The expense and disclosure policy was scheduled to take effect on October 1 and would be reported on a bi-monthly basis.
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