Investigation now, transparency moving forward: FoM demands answers following allegations

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on February 8, 2025.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

Friends of Medicare is calling for a full investigation by the RCMP into the allegations made in regards to AHS’s contracts and procurement processes.

Chris Galloway, executive director of Friends of Medicare, questioned why former CEO of Alberta Health Services Athana Mentzelopoulos was terminated only one year into a four-year contract.

“They said it was because of the restructuring. But why did they sign a four year contract, if they were going to then lay her off one year in and pay a bunch of money,” asked Galloway. “Two weeks or so later, they fired the whole board as well. We were saying at that time, it seemed strange to do that.”

The allegations made, Galloway says, is that “the Globe & Mail uncovered that it looks like the CEO was looking into what she thought was problematic procurement, the Auditor General was starting an investigation and then the timing of her firing coincides with that.”

If these allegations, Galloway says, are both troubling and shocking, and because of that, he believes they must be investigated thoroughly and by the RCMP, as if there are contracts that would benefit for-profit organizations over the public, those relationships need to be investigated as well.

“They’re all unproven, of course, but if they’re at all true, they’re they’re serious,” Galloway told the News on Friday. “We’ve been calling for the Auditor General to prioritize this, and since then, the Auditor General has said they’re investigating. We’ve been calling on the government to ensure they have full access to what they need, and that there’s no impediments from AHS or government folks.”

Galloway says FoM finds the lack of public comment from the premier or minister of health on the issue concerning.

“There were a couple statements sent directly to journalists, the health minister claiming that it’s untrue, that the CEO’s firing had nothing to do with the investigation and was always part of the plan,” said Galloway. “If that’s true, why did you sign a four-year contract with the CEO to fire her one year into it? Why is it costing us hundreds of thousands, potentially over a million dollars now, in severance for that dismissal? If that was the plan, that’s pretty bad planning.”

He continued on to add that he finds it concerning there is now less separation between the Ministry of Health and the agency that delivers health-care services.

“We have a situation where the deputy minister is running the whole system without a board, without any sort of arm’s length appearance. It’s just direct control of the minister over the health-care system, and that’s concerning to us in terms of accountability and transparency to the public,” said Galloway. “It’s our dollars, our public tax dollars, that pay for our public health-care system, and we’re not getting the accountability we should.”

He says the issue with the potential contracts with private companies is that these contracts are not viewable by the public.

“We don’t know what we’re paying, we don’t know what we’re signing into. Those contracts are protected from the public because it’s a private corporation, so we give up that transparency every time we do that,” said Galloway, citing the issue where Dynalife walked away, leaving the province to get lab services back on the public system. “There better be a very good procurement system in place that’s transparent, that’s based on good practices, that doesn’t have political interference, and we’re not feeling confident that’s true right now.”

As a result, Friends of Medicare is calling for a full investigation, beyond surgery procurement, as the government has signed contracts for recovery work, for labs, for ambulance services, for food and laundry.

Galloway says he sees this as a moment for accountability, but also for leadership from the Auditor General and the Ministries associated with health services, to step up and ensure that Albertans are receiving best practices in all levels of procurement and care.

“The Auditor General hopefully will have recommendations, hopefully the health minister and the other ministers now involved in various parts of health care will show they’re taking it seriously, and propose things they’re doing to ensure that Alberta’s taxpayers are being protected,” said Galloway.

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