TORONTO - A new audit of Cancer Care Ontario shows the provincial agency suffered from many of the same problems that plagued troubled eHealth Ontario.
The document was among thousands of pages released Wednesday by the government at the exact moment the auditor general was releasing his report into untendered contracts and expense abuses at eHealth and the Ministry of Health.
Government officials dumped a third box full of additional documents at 6 p.m., saying they weren't ready when the other boxes were delivered to reporters earlier.
One internal audit found that Cancer Care spent nearly $75 million on consultants over the last two years, but didn't always follow the rules on competitive tendering.
The report, conducted by auditors at the Ministry of Finance, said Cancer Care's "procurement processes, file organization and consistency of documentation require substantial improvement."
"This situation is exacerbated by the decentralized approach to contract management and oversight," it said.
"It is also apparent that required competitive tendering rules have not been consistently applied for all contracts of significant value."
The audit highlighted one consulting firm that did $18.7 million worth of work for the agency over a three-year period, which involved providing advice on technology for reducing wait times.
The original contract awarded to the agency was tendered, but the agency awarded 26 follow-up agreements that weren't, the audit found.
Cancer Care maintains it was following the rules when it allowed the additional agreements -- an opinion it says was backed up by a lawyer -- which is why it didn't retender the contract.
The same firm was reimbursed $135,705.61 for expenses that weren't pre-approved, and almost none were backed up by original receipts, the audit found.
The agency said it conducted its own audit and found only $5,780.02 in ineligible expenses.
"As a result, the supplier has issued a credit memo in the amount of $5,780.02 which will be used against future invoices to reduce payments," Mitchell Toker, a spokesman for Cancer Care Ontario.
Toker noted that the agency's directors requested the audit in June to assess the agency's approach to procurement.
Opposition Leader Tim Hudak said the Liberal government was clearly trying to hide problems at Cancer Care by burying reporters in paper at the same moment the auditor's special report on eHealth was being released.
Auditor general Jim McCarter found a lack of government oversight allowed consultants to run amok as the province spent $1 billion trying to create electronic health records but remains at the back of the back compared with other provinces.
Cancer Care's president and CEO Terrence Sullivan said he accepts "full responsibility" for the audit's findings, but noted the agency has taken steps to address recommendations that it adhere to rules laid out by the government.
"We take the findings and the need to improve very seriously," he said in a statement Wednesday.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the problems at Cancer Care are just another example of the lack of government control over the spending of taxpayers dollars, proof of which was provided in the auditor's report.
