TORONTO - A provincial government that has taken over management of publicly funded hospitals and school boards because of spending waste should allow its watchdog a chance to investigate, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin said Tuesday.
  
In his annual report, Marin acknowledged some improvement, but still discovered a "treasure trove of government maladministration," including a "not-my-job" mentality at Legal Aid Ontario and a "customer-is-always-wrong" approach at the Trillium Drug Program.
  
The Family Responsibility Office, which helps enforce court-ordered support payments, and has been criticized severely in previous ombudsman's reports, is suffering from what Marin called "customer disservice syndrome."
  
"We continue to encounter ingrained organizational attitudes and practices that at times can make public service seem more like public nuisance," wrote Marin.
  
"These maladies persisted this year, leaving many Ontarians in what I can only describe as the twilight zone of public service."
  
One man who paid his family support in 2000 found out in 2007 that the FRO had filed a writ with the sheriff's office seven years earlier to collect a debt of $6,900.
  
The FRO denied issuing the writ and refused to quash it -- until Marin's office provided them with a copy.
  
Another man found himself in jail after being sentenced in absentia to driving without a licence, but he wasn't warned he could face jail time if he didn't reschedule a court appearance right away.
  
The 60-year-old man spent six days in jail and was denied a public defender before he called the ombudsman. The Crown discovered no one had told the man he faced a jail term, and he was granted bail the next day.
  
But Marin's biggest concern was that he still doesn't have the ability to investigate complaints about municipalities, universities, schools, hospitals or children's aid societies -- the so-called MUSH sector that eats up a huge portion of the provincial budget.
  
These agencies "have become almost a law unto themselves," said Marin. "They have carved themselves a nice, comfortable niche, a zone of immunity against oversight."
  
Health Minister George Smitherman dismissed Marin's concerns, saying there's already lots of oversight of Ontario hospitals, even though it's the only province that doesn't give the ombudsman that right.
  
"The level of accountability that hospitals have right now with the combination of community-based governance, local health integration networks and the power of the provincial auditor for investigation, really is a pretty comprehensive regime of accountability," said Smitherman.
  
"Not all provinces have community-based governance."
  
But Marin wasn't buying Smitherman's argument.
  
The Ministry of Health's position . . .is, `Everything is just on track, we have our own scrutiny,' while back at the ranch the wheels are falling off the bus," he said.
  
"How can it assume control over badly managed (hospitals and school boards) while at the same time refusing to subject them to the checks and balances that could have potentially prevented scandals from developing in the first place?"
  
The New Democrats support giving the ombudsman oversight of hospitals and long-term care homes, while the Conservatives said people should be able to take their complaints to either the ombudsman, the auditor general or someone appointed by the legislature.
  
"The ombudsman is the logical candidate to be looked at perhaps most seriously because he has a degree of independence, he's an officer of the legislature and has proven investigative skills," said Conservative Leader John Tory.
  
Marin said he would have started an investigation some time ago into why some 270 patients have died at seven Ontario hospitals as a result of the C. difficile bacteria -- something the government still refuses to do.
  
"I would have been all over that one," he said. "Can you imagine, you go into a hospital with a broken ankle and die as a result of an intestinal bacteria? You want to provide an independent means of investigation to find out whether everything humanly possible has been done."
  
Marin said the government could have avoided embarrassing stories about school trustees abusing their expense accounts if his office had the ability to investigate the boards.
  
"Allegations of not only not budgeting properly, but Caribbean trips and lingerie -- what is that? Is Homer Simpson in charge?"