George Abbott told The Canadian Press on Monday he will implement whatever changes the audit recommends.
"I stand ready to undertake whatever reviews are suggested or recommended by the internal audit," he said.
"We will be guided by that, and if there are recommendations that more work be done, then we'll do it."
The ministry launched the audit last summer after one of Abbott's top deputies was placed on mandatory leave in connection with a $10,000 cheque his wife received from a health consultant who knew the deputy.
Ron Danderfer was the assistant deputy minister of health when he resigned earlier this month. His wife, Joan, also quit her government job earlier this month.
Health consultant Dr. Jonathan Burns sat on several high-powered government health committees with Danderfer and helped oversee ministry projects worth at least $300 million.
"Any time a serious allegation is tendered with respect to the conduct of a public servant, obviously they (the auditors) are going to be asking questions about any other issues that may have been raised internally around that," Abbott said.
"That's all I can say on that at this time."
Danderfer was the chairman of the government's eHealth Steering Committee and Burns was a member of that committee.
The committee has the mandate to develop a strategic plan for eHealth in British Columbia, including developing the vision of what the plan will look like in three years.
The government's eHealth plans comprise more than 20 projects, including electronic medical records, chronic disease management integration and a telehealth video conference system.
Danderfer and Burns are no longer on the eHealth committee, Abbott said.
Abbott said he is awaiting the results of the audit before making further comments.
The minister said he could not discuss Burns's involvement in the audit process, but said the core of the allegations against Danderfer involve financial irregularities.
"The eHealth initiative is a very big project and not surprisingly as assistant deputy minister, Mr. Danderfer was very much involved in that," Abbott said.
"That's all we can say about it until we see the results of the internal audit."
Burns and Danderfer could not be reached for comment.
Abbott confirmed his ministry launched an internal review of one of the government's eHealth contracts last summer after businesses formally complained to the government about the government's bid selection process.
The review by the Health Ministry and the Ministry of Labour and Citizen's Services found the selection process was clean, said Abbott.
The government received more than 30 bids for its Physician Information Technology Office - or PITO - project aimed at getting the province's doctors on common software for medical records.
Danderfer and Burns, who also runs a medical technology company, were members of the PITO project steering committee.
Only six companies were chosen to be involved in the $108-million project.
As of last week, Burns listed one of the winning companies as one of his partners on his website.
The company, Wolf Medical, denied there had ever been a financial link between the two and on Monday, the web page was no longer available.
Abbott said the review found that Danderfer was not involved in the selection or evaluation process for the PITO project.
Dr. Tom Elliott, whose bid for PITO's electronic medical records project was rejected, said he didn't believe the process was fair, but never complained formally to the government.
The Opposition New Democrats have called for an independent review of all the contracts connected to the government's eHealth initiative.
NDP health critic Adrian Dix said there is too much tax money at stake for a process that is the subject of an internal audit and has drawn the interest of the police.
Abbott said his ministry was contacted by the RCMP last July.
The Mounties say they cannot confirm nor deny if have launched an investigation.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Dirk Meissner
Quelle/Source: 680 News, 29.10.2007
