Ontario bureaucrat who wasted taxpayer money given a golden parachute
In these tough economic times, the wasteful spending was especially cringe-worthy. eHealth Ontario, a provincial agency that is supposed to be converting hard-copy medical records to electronic form, has spent most of its time doling out $5-million worth of untendered contracts to friends and associates of CEO Sarah Kramer. In one egregious example, a consultant billed taxpayers for eight hours of work—at $300 an hour—for sending herself emails and phoning herself to ask follow-up questions. On Sunday, Dalton McGuinty’s government finally did the inevitable: they fired Kramer. She’ll be fine, though. Her dismissal comes complete with a $317,000 severance package.