TORONTO - Ontario's Liberal government insists no rules were broken when the provincial agency charged with creating electronic health records gave out $5 million in contracts without taking bids.
Health Minister David Caplan defends eHealth Ontario, saying it made great progress since being set up last fall to replace another agency that spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the same project.
NDP health critic France Gelinas says eHealth CEO Sarah Kramer also gave herself a $114,000 bonus after five months on the job, and spent $50,000 refurnishing her office.
Gelinas calls it a gross and appalling misuse of taxpayers' money.
Premier Dalton McGuinty admits he's concerned about some of the information coming out about eHealth.
McGuinty says he hopes the auditor general can report quickly on his investigation of the new agency.
eHealth is supposed to develop a record system by 2015 that would allow health-care providers to electronically share information from patient records.
