Conflict of interest found in AHS computer contract
No wrongdoing was found when Alberta Health Services purchased and kept 11,000 computers in a warehouse for over a year.
However, Public Interest Commissioner Peter Hourihan found there was a conflict of interest in how how the computers were procured.
The a sole-source consultant contract was recommended and co-signed by an AHS employee who was a former partner and shareholder with the corporation that got the contract.
The conflict of interest wasn’t disclosed until after the contract was awarded. There was no disciplinary action because that person no longer works for AHS.
Despite this finding, Hourihan believes there was no wrongdoing.
“All of the areas of the business enterprise that we looked into in terms of awarding the contract were followed," he said. "I did not feel that it constituted gross mismanagement to the extent where it became gross, but certainly mismanagement."
Hourihan investigated the matter after a whistleblower laid a complaint last year. He released his findings on Tuesday.
The desktop and laptop computers were purchased for $9.5 million by AHS at the end of the 2011-12 budget year. However, they were not distributed until June 2013.
Hourihan found that the purchase was not a gross mismanagement of public funds because the computers were bought to replace outdated models, they were procured during a public tendering process and AHS was already trying to deal with them when the whistleblower complained.
Hourihan will not name the former employee or the company that got the contract because his report found no wrongdoing.
