Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith, and Minister of Health, Adriana Lagrange, say they did not get involved in determining the details of the contracts with private surgical facilities and emphasized that all those decisions were made by Alberta Health Services staff ( Ahs).
The two politicians were responding to a lawsuit filed by Athana Mentzelopoulous, the former CEO of AHS, claiming Lagrange and the personnel of the applied Smith office pressure to renew and sign contracts. In his claim statement, Mentzelopoulous claimed that he had concerns about conflicts of interest in the acquisition and faced pressure to renew contracts with high surgical facilities at the prices he thought they were too high.
At a press conference on Wednesday in Calgary, Smith said that all hiring decisions were at the height of AHS.
“They were the ones who wrote the [requests for proposals]”Smith said.” They were the ones who left and received the offers. They were the ones who chose the proponent. And then they were the ones who were accused of the task of negotiating the terms of the agreement.
“The only role that the minister or the government had was to say: ‘Have you finished? Have you already reached the finish line? You have been working on these contracts for years. When can we wait for them?'”
In response to a question from a reporter, both Smith and Lagrange said they did not receive bribes from private surgery contractors that provide procedures financed with public funds.
Smith said he supports Lagrange Stay as Minister of Health, adding that Lagrange took the necessary measures to investigate the accusations.
Vice Minister replaced
The prime minister said that the cabinet appointed Darren Hedley on Wednesday as the Vice Minister of Interim Health, while the Government and the General Auditor review the acquisition and hiring practices.
Replaces Andre Tremblay, who has also been serving as CEO and official AHS administrator instead of a board of directors. Tremblay will continue in those two roles.
Smith said the cabinet asked that Tremblay’s power was limited during the investigation because “they did not feel comfortable with the mixed paper.”
In addition, Smith said that a “legal conflict wall” will ensure that AHS’s lawyer, and not Tremblay, is responsible for delivering records to researchers, he said.
Surgical contracts will not be granted while the reviews are in progress, added Smith.
Ex -CEO demand
Mentzelopoulos detailed his accusations in a demand for unfair dismissal of $ 1.7 million filed against Lagrange and AHS in Edmonton Court last week.
The complaint of complaint of Mentzelopoulos alleges that the government fired it a year in a four -year contract partly because it had “authorized an internal investigation and forensic audit in several AHS contracts and AHS acquisition processes, including contracts with suppliers Private of Medical Care and Suppliers “
His claim statement also continues to say that he had supported the evaluation of “contracts with several private surgical facilities whose directors were connected with several government officials.”
In the complaint of claim, Mentzelopoulos also claimed that government officials pressed it to extend contracts with Alberta Surgical Group, based in Edmonton, and to sign new private surgery contracts with proponents in Network of EER and Lethbridge.
After Lagrange issued a directive on October 18, 2024, ordering the Government to take care of the negotiation of contracts with collegiate surgical facilities, Mentzelopoulos claimed that the new proposed rates were clearer than in comparable contracts “and would lead to costs significantly higher than ahs, and potentially hundreds of millions in profits for the [facilities] Owners, “says the demand.
Mentzelopoulos said that he also expanded AHS’s investigations to analyze the acquisition of AHS with the MHCare medical supply company. The company, owned by Sam Mraiche, said a $ 70 million contract at the end of 2022 to import five million bottles of children’s analgesics in Turkey during a national drug scarcity.
Most of the product that paid AHS has never reached Canada or has been distributed to pharmacies or hospitals.
Mentzelopoulos was fired on January 8, which, according to her, is two days before she was scheduled to meet with Alberta General Auditor to discuss the accusations. None of Mentzelopoulos accusations has been tested in court.
Ahs called changes resistant
Lagrange reiterated on Wednesday that he had spent eight months asking Mentzelopoulos to provide evidence of irregularities in hiring and acquisition, but did not receive any “information and substantive documentation.”
Mentzelopoulos has denied this in his claim statement.
Lagrange said he will submit a declaration of defense in the Court in the coming weeks.
She said a senior government official is looking for a lawyer to carry out an external review of the accusations.
The province and AH have until March 4 to present defense statements in the Court. Mentzelopoulos’ lawyer said that none has submitted answers to date.
In response to the questions, the prime minister said that he knew for autumn 2024 that Lagrange was carrying out a third party review on the price of surgical procedures in different facilities.
Smith said that Lagrange had not told him about accusations of conflicts or possible irregularities.
Lagrange spokeswoman Jessi Rampton previously said that Mentzelopoulos’s departure was part of a planned reconfiguration of the province’s medical care system.
Smith’s government is in the middle of AHS in four new organizations: Atent Alberta, Alberta, Alberta and Alberta de Living Alberta.
On Wednesday, Smith said that AHS leaders are resistant to systemic changes and get in the path of transition.
Prime Minister Danielle Smith is defending the Minister of Health, Adriana Lagrange, and how she handled the accusations made by Athana Mentzelopoulous, former CEO of Alberta Health Services, in a claim statement. The demand alleges that Lagrange and the staff of the Smith office applied pressure to renew and sign contracts related to the surgical facilities of the table. A third -party review is expected, but Alberta’s NDP is asking for a public investigation led by a judge.
“Having to give 18 directives to AHS demonstrates how much resistance we face from Ahs Management,” said Smith.
In an email on Wednesday afternoon, Mentzelopoulos’s lawyer, Dan Scott, said his client was hired as CEO in December 2023 at the instances of Alberta Health to lead the changes in medical care transformation.
“Athana Mentzelopoulos has no idea what the prime minister is talking, unless it is ensured that public health dollars are properly spent as’ resistance,” he said in an email.
In a press conference from Calgary, the NDP leader of the opposition, Naheed Neshi, said the government should call a public investigation led by the judge to guarantee transparency. He said that Tremblay or the government are still in charge of accepting the results of other revisions.
“What we saw in Prime Minister, as always, was a master class for gas lighting, diverting and spreading, trying to talk about other things and angry people about other things and not assume any responsibility,” said Neshi.
He has also asked all the ministers appointed in the lawsuit to be made aside.
The lawyers who represent MHCare have said that the demand between Mentzelopoulos and AHS is a private dispute between two litigants that is currently before the courts.
A February 7 statement of Alberta’s surgical group said the leaders were surprised and dismayed by the accusations, adding that the statements are false.
