A former aide to Premier Dalton McGuinty was among the highly paid consultants who benefited from an untendered contract with eHealth Ontario, a provincial agency mired in a spending scandal, documents show.
Karli Farrow, a former adviser to McGuinty who works for the Courtyard Group, billed eHealth for 32.5 hours of consulting work in January — amounting to $10,646 at her $327 hourly rate.
According to billing records, her tasks included corresponding about eHealth “priorities” with Don Guy, the premier’s former chief of staff who is now president and CEO of polling firm Pollara.
McGuinty, who has been dogged by questions about eHealth all week, wouldn’t say whether he was aware of Farrow’s work for the agency.
“I really do think we should allow the internal audit to be completed now, as well as the provincial auditor,” he said after speaking at an Ottawa hospital.
“There are all kinds of things that come up, and I think we ought to introduce a little more light and a little less heat.”
EHealth, the second provincial agency tasked with creating electronic health records, has ignited a political firestorm for awarding nearly $5 million in untendered contracts.
Opposition parties have accused eHealth of giving Liberal-friendly firms lucrative contracts without taking competitive bids.
Sarah Kramer was abruptly removed as president and CEO earlier this week amid the furor over eHealth, which allowed consultants who were paid about $2,700 a day to bill taxpayers for minor purchases such as tea and snacks.
