Lavish expense claims chase Allaudin Merali out of AHS

[Senator Clay Davis]

Mazurkewich said AHS knew about the Ontario controversy when it hired Merali, but did not believe it would happen again.

Hahahahahahahaha. Might be about as stupid as it gets right there. Trust a guy who already proved himself untrustworthy.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by First Lady

You can find the nearly 800 pages of expenses obtained via the FOIP request here. Is large .pdf

Couple of things I would like more info on.

1) where did he live? There seem to be a lot of hotel and taxi bills in Edmoton for someone who presumably was based (living) in Edmonton.
2) was the car his or a government vehicle? As reported there are expense claims for repairs, but I also found one where they paid the insurance deductible of $500.00 for a windshield replacement.

Found the answer to my 2nd question. They also paid his insurance and registration. Both in his personal name.

[Dion]

Horne said he wasn't aware of Merali's controversial past when AHS hired Merali, but he wondered why the board did not either.

"I'm as dumbfounded by this as anyone else," he said. "I want to know what the board knew. I intend to find out.

"Should we have known? Yes.

"The board of Alberta Health Services and I will be having some very, very serious conversations in the weeks and months ahead," he said.

Horne tread carefully on the issue of Merali's severance pay as it is still being negotiated, but he promised whatever is agreed to will be made public.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...ns-merali.html

[Dion]

These problems are like cockroaches - there's never just the one you saw. Will the province move aggressively to find and eliminate the others? Time for a performance audit! Horne, Redford: ball's in your court.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Dion

These people are like cockroaches

Fixed.

[1stLand]

I think Merali deserves all those items to be expensed.
AHS is in such good shape and our Health Case system is second to none.
We need to keep our CFO's well paid and happy or else they will find another job.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by Dion

These problems are like cockroaches - there's never just the one you saw. Will the province move aggressively to find and eliminate the others? Time for a performance audit! Horne, Redford: ball's in your court.

Weird. Either you copied that from a poster on cbc.ca, or you are that poster. Are you "Nondescript Username"?

[1stLand]

Originally Posted by Dion

These problems are like cockroaches - there's never just the one you saw. Will the province move aggressively to find and eliminate the others? Time for a performance audit! Horne, Redford: ball's in your court.

Why is it that an investigative journalist always has to be the one to uncover instances of 'mis-use of public funds'.

You would think there would be more public watch dog groups out there.

I am wondering why the Canadian Taxpayers Federation didn't raise the red flag on AHS

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

Why is it that an investigative journalist always has to be the one to uncover instances of 'mis-use of public funds'.

You would think there would be more public watch dog groups out there.

I am wondering why the Canadian Taxpayers Federation didn't raise the red flag on AHS

I do believe there is a cost involved in filing a FOIP request.

Ironic in this case it was CBC (publicly funded) who did it and blew whistle on how public monies are spent.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by First Lady

I do believe there is a cost involved in filing a FOIP request.

Ironic in this case it was CBC (publicly funded) who did it and blew whistle on how public monies are spent.

The CBC paid $550 to the govt for the documents

[OldDutch]

When I was in college, I took a course on Sales. The prof was a fairly succesful businessman who on the first day gave his rule#1:

"if you learn only one thing from me let it be this. No matter what do not abuse the expense account. You would not believe how many guys I've seen with 6 figure jobs lose everything over a $100 worth of drinks. Stay as far away from that stuff as possible, cause they'll find out and then you and your name is screwed."

I just got back from a trip, and our benders were on me. Kick in the wallet, but not losing my job over a few hundred.

[mykalberta]

our salespersons at one of our divisions just got hit with a $750 monthly expense account limit

people in that office are not happy

[darklord700]

Most people don't make 76K a month, how do you expense 76K a month? That took some really creative skills to do.

[Ozy_Flame]

^^^ It started with his $1800 golf rounds and his $2000 repair job to his Mercedes. Also, if you're spending $200 on lunch for two people, this would have no problem adding up. I bet he flew to vacation spots as well for "conferences" and things of the like. I believe his spending record is now public anyways.

I had a friend who thought it was appropriate to book a flight to New York for a weekend getaway on the company credit card because she was personally broke. She thought it was OK to do because she'd pay it back the next paycheque. She got fired. Sorry sweetheart, it doesn't work that way. What a dumb ass thing to do.

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Most people don't make 76K a month, how do you expense 76K a month? That took some really creative skills to do.

Are you kidding me, the CP collective makes that in 3 months...

[darklord700]

This guy is ballsy and stupid to expense $76K a month and think he could get away with it. He should be charged with fraud but he's collecting severance from the taxpayer. Are we that dumb?

[Azure]

So they knew about his problem before they hired him, and never did anything about it when it became a problem again until the media ousted it.

Okay.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by darklord700

This guy is ballsy and stupid to expense $76K a month and think he could get away with it. He should be charged with fraud but he's collecting severance from the taxpayer. Are we that dumb?

To be fair, that was his stint with Ontario EHealth were his contract was something like $3500 per/day with an additional $75 per diem (presumably for meals) ?? That was after he had already worked for Capital Health billing nearly $2000.00/week in expenses.

Yet we (gov) hired him back again in May (???) Would like to see his recent expense claims.

[1stLand]

Doug Horner was on global tv just now extolling the virtues of one Allaudin Merali, as being involved in various charitable and philantropic endeavours.

This totally excuses his expense account abuse.

[Yasa]

This is exactly why I don't pay taxes. I demand my healthcare and sidewalks though!