Alberta's tough expenses rules could be tougher

CALGARY -- Making it easier for the public to keep tabs on the tabs that public officials charge to taxpayers is something many watchdog groups and editorial boards have been seeking for a long time.

So, it's laudable Alberta Premier Alison Redford vows to bring in the toughest and most transparent rules around expenses in the country. But she hasn't gone nearly far enough into curtailing the culture of entitlement that has festered after 41 years of unbroken Tory rule.

As of Oct. 1, government politicians (but not MLAs from opposition parties), political staff and about 400 senior civil servants will be required to disclose travel, meal and hospitality expenses in detail online every two months. Here's hoping opposition MLAs will follow suit.

This is a good first step, but there are many loopholes and problems. One former Tory insider says many of those senior staffers will just have their exempt staff members pay the bills, so strict rules around those kinds of diversionary tactics need to be established now. Also, this policy does not apply to universities, boards and commissions, such as Alberta Health Services, where abuse has been flagrant.

This announcement came on the heels of embarrassing revelations about expense claims made by provincial Tory senator-in-waiting Doug Black, who billed more than $28,000 in expenses over 18 months as University of Calgary board chairman. Hiring private drivers, staying at the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons at a cost of more than $500 per night are just some of his excesses.

The information only came to light owing to a Freedom of Information request made by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Black, who is in Europe and can't be reached for comment, has since paid back $5,400.

Redford started crafting this policy apparently shortly after news broke in August about the $346,208 in expenses racked up by Allaudin Merali when he was CFO at the former Capital Health Region in Edmonton between 2005 to 2008. The salacious details are widely known, but to recap, here are just a few of them.

Despite pulling in a salary of $487,000 at Capital Health in 2007, Merali billed taxpayers $28.58 for two six-packs of Tiger Beer for a 2007 "dinner at home," $524.86 to replace the cracked windshield on his Mercedes-Benz and $2,303.60 for the installation of a car phone in 2006. Somebody needs to introduce this guy to blue tooth technology!

Merali also charged the taxpayer for his mileage, gas, insurance, car repairs and even car washes. The thing most of the rest of us wonder is just how huge do these public servants' salaries have to be before they start paying for their own cracked windshields, car washes and beer? If there were a reality show on the world's cheapest people, Merali could be the star for an entire season.

But the focus on expenses is a diversion away from a much more serious problem -- the platinum parachutes and pensions paid out to the likes of Merali.

By focusing on expense accounts, the province is sweating the small stuff and ignoring the really gross examples of over-the-top enrichment. To paraphrase an old Spanish saying, "they're afraid of flies but eat elephants."

After all, when the various health regions were amalgamated into the one superboard, a lot of health executives in Alberta got very rich very quickly, and then, to add insult to the injury, were hired back into lucrative new positions for the new health agency. That's what happened to Merali and others, and it ought to be illegal. In 2008, Merali got a $1-million severance package when the province consolidated the health boards. Merali's boss, Sheila Weatherill, the woman who approved his 146 expense claims, got a $1.5-million severance.

Merali also received a $13,303 monthly pension -- paid apparently on top of his regular pension -- while working for Capital Health. But that's not all. To help him get over the blow of becoming an instant millionaire, he was provided with a supplementary pension worth $1.6 million over 10 years.

And he's not alone. Apparently, the cost of 50 solid platinum "supplementary" pension plans for former health executives is more than $35 million, to be paid out over the next few decades.

Merali was then hired as a consultant with eHealth Ontario. His billing and expenses became a huge scandal in Ontario and Tory cabinet ministers admit to knowing about it. Nevertheless, they hired Merali back this past March anyway and he started his job as, ironically, head of finances of AHS, to, among other things, oversee the expense accounts of other health staffers. You couldn't make this stuff up!

When Merali stepped down after the CBC was about to broadcast a story about his outrageous expense claims, the province had actually planned to pay him a full year's severance -- almost $500,000 -- even though he quit his job and had worked for just three months! Public outrage forced the Tories to back down on that. The CBC obtained this information through a FOIP request.

And the list goes on and on. So, by all means, let's be transparent about expenses, but let's also put an end to the severance and pension excesses and make them transparent with set boundaries.

Licia Corbella is a columnist and the editorial page editor of the Calgary Herald.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 12, 2012 A7