Plus Another 18 Pencil Pushers at HQ
THE ONTARIO GOVERNMENT FINANCE MINISTRY has cleaned house at the scandal-plagued air ambulance service, Ornge. A government spokesman revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that the government has assigned 28 forensic auditors to the offices of Ornge where they are working night and day to wade through the labyrinth of private, for-profit companies that Ornge insiders had set up to possibly funnel money away from the agency and into the private coffers.
The four directors of the air ambulance charity were asked to step down immediately, which they did, and a hand-picked group was appointed to a new 7-member board. The directors that were tossed were receiving salaries while the new board is all-volunteers made up from respected business leaders.
The Toronto Globe & Mail adds:
The ouster of the board came one day after Mr. McKerlie terminated 18 administrative jobs at head office. As well, Maria Renzella, executive vice-president of corporate services, has gone on medical leave, according to sources. She is the second top executive to do so – Ornge founder and chief executive officer Chris Mazza went on "indefinite" medical leave in December.
Health Minister Deb Matthews is on the defensive over Ornge. Ms. Matthews was aware that Ornge planned to create new business ventures that would make money by trading on the expertise of the taxpayer-funded air ambulance service. Ornge was to receive just 3 per cent of the revenue from these businesses, and the new ventures would pocket the balance, according to a copy of a Stakeholder Briefing dated Jan. 19, 2011 and signed by chairman Rainer Beltzner.
Ornge is responsible for performing life-saving CPR on patients and ferrying them from accident scenes to a hospital. But it is also facing questions about whether patient care was compromised. The Globe has reported that the Health Ministry's Emergency Health Services Branch is investigating 13 cases, including three deaths. Most of these incidents relate to complaints about either response times or the adequacy of Ornge's new helicopter fleet.
Read the full article in the Globe & Mail HERE.
Globe & Mail / Hanley
Ornge was established as a charity but has seemingly been turned into a cash cow for the directors and administrators. The Toronto Star goes right to the core of the scandal, reporting:
Scandal has dogged the service since mid-December, with revelations by the Star of high salaries and executive perks, secrecy, less than speedy ambulance dispatches and some mysterious payments from overseas.
What McKerlie did not mention in his email to staff is that very few of the dollars the foundation received since it was created four years ago came from public and patients.
Instead, the money (and gifts like two fancy motorcycles painted orange) came from companies like Pilatus, which sold 10 single-engine airplanes to ORNGE at an estimated total cost of $40 million for use as air ambulances.
In one case, a press release from ORNGE noted that Pilatus donated $343,000 to the Foundation. When ORNGE purchased $144 million worth of helicopters (12 in total) from Agusta Westland, Agusta made a $6.7 million payment to an ORNGE for-profit and gave two orange "choppers" to the Foundation. Another former asset of one of the ORNGE charities was a $50,000 speedboat that founder Chris Mazza wanted to use to teach youth how to wakeboard and water ski safely.
Read The Toronto Star's story HERE.
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