AHS begins posting executive and Board member expenses online

EDMONTON – Alberta Health Services began posting executive and Board member expense claims to its website Monday. As senior staff file their individual expenses, AHS will continue to make them public online.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) said the expense information for senior staff members at the Senior Vice President level and above, as well as Zone Medical Directors, Chief Medical Officers, the Ethics and Compliance Officer, the Chief Audit Executive, and the Chief of Staff would be posted online beginning Monday, December 3.

Out of the 41 executive staff members listed on the AHS website, 21 expense claims had been filed and posted Monday. To view the expenses, click here. Six of the ten AHS board members had filed and posted expense claims Monday. To view the board members’ expenses, click here. 

The amounts claimed by AHS senior staff vary from $25 (Kery Bales, SVP, Central Zone) to $10,039 (Dr. Vanessa MacLean, Zone Medical Director, South Zone). For the remaining staff members, the website reads there are “no expenses reported for this month as of posting date.”

On Monday, AHS CEO Dr. Chris Eagle said the expense claims are being posted as they are being filed.

“I think it’s really important that the public, who pay for the health care system, know how the dollars are being allocated. If you look over the last number of years, it’s become more and more transparent,” said Eagle. “I think executive expenses are part of that as well,” he added.

“I think from the previous health regions to where we are today, the level of accountability and the level of transparency is just night and day.”

AHS clarifies that as expense claims are filed, they will be posted, and that staff may not file on a monthly basis. It is up to the individual staff members to decide when they file the expense claims within the fiscal year, which is why some of the expenses aren’t online yet.

In a news release Friday, AHS said the online information would include expenses claimed for October 2012, while November expense claims should be posted by December 14. After that, AHS says a monthly expense report will be posted by the tenth business day of each month.

In early August, AHS CFO Allaudin Merali left his position with AHS, after his expense claims at a previous health position became public. The documents showed 146 expenses from 2005-2008, for things like pricey dinners, membership dues, car repairs, alcohol, and hotel visits. The expenses totaled $346,208.

AHS board member Sheila Weatherill, who signed off on many of Merali’s claims, resigned from her position in early August.

Opposition parties called on the province to disband AHS, but Health Minister Fred Horne said AHS assured him there are policies in place now that are far more stringent than what was in place under the former Capital Health authority.

“I recommend that this government and Premier Redford dissolve the AHS board,” said Liberal leader Raj Sherman in August. He also said the government should “order a forensic audit of Capital Health and AHS books.”

In mid-August, Freedom of Information Requests (FOIP) revealed top AHS executives had expensed more than $190,000 in 2011, with tens of thousands of dollars spent on airfare, buses and hotels for travel within the province.

The documents showed Eagle and seven senior executives show the health system managers travelled extensively on superboard business within Alberta during the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

At the time, Eagle said AHS had purposefully reined in expense policies. He said meals on the taxpayer’s dime are infrequent, and that only he can sign off on alcohol expenditures. Eagle added that travel had been cut down this past fiscal year.

“One of the challenges of having an organization like AHS is we cover the entire province, north to south, east to west,” said Eagle.

“We try to be as efficient as we can with it, but it does involve a lot of travel.”

At the time, AHS said it would begin posting the expenses of senior health executives online.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation was pleased when the decision to post claims publicly was made, but added it shouldn’t have taken a FOIP request to prompt the move.

“That speaks to why it’s important individual expenses be posted online,” Hennig said.

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 first round of expenses is scheduled to be posted ten working days after December 1.