McGuinty To Ontario Agency Execs: Watch Out, Or End Up Like OLG

Top brass at Ontario’s 600 arm’s-length agencies, boards and commissions had better lead by example when it comes to spending taxpayers’ money or they’ll be fired just like the CEO of the Lottery and Gaming Corp. was, Premier Dalton McGuinty warned Tuesday.

Kelly McDougald, the CEO of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., was fired Monday – and the entire board of directors resigned – after expenses filed by senior staff were deemed “unacceptable” by the government.

“I have a particularly important message for the leadership of our agencies, boards and commissions: you must lead by example,” McGuinty said at a news conference.

“If you doubt our commitment, take a look at the example of which we are making of OLG. ”

The auditor general will determine if any rules were broken at OLG when staff submitted claims for lavish restaurant and bar bills, gym and golf club memberships and even a $30 car wash.

McGuinty announced that workers at the largest 23 of Ontario’s 600 agencies, boards and commissions will have to submit their expense claims to the integrity commissioner rather than having them approved in-house.

Any expenses deemed inappropriate will have to be repaid, he said.

However, the opposition parties were fuming that McGuinty failed to ask the cabinet minister responsible for OLG to resign, and complained he also failed to hold a minister responsible for a similar scandal at eHealth Ontario this summer.

“The premier talked about the need for the heads of these agencies to be responsible (but) I think ultimately ministers need to be responsible, and we didn’t see that yet again,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“We have a principle in our province about ministerial accountability. The buck stops at the minister’s desk,” said Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.”

“I tell you, you put a minister’s head in the chopping block and that sends a message awful darn quick to the others to get their acts cleaned up.”

McGuinty insisted taxpayers were most concerned with making sure the expense abuses don’t happen again, and said the vast majority of workers at the provincial agencies do play by the rules.

“Just because you operate at arm’s length from our government doesn’t give you the right to strong-arm taxpayers,” he said.

“If you fail to abide by the rules, there will be consequences.”

The Liberals moved Monday to try to stop the OLG story from playing out over days and weeks like the eHealth scandal did by releasing thousands of pages of expense claims all at once, something they didn’t do until several weeks into the scandal at eHealth.

That controversy over inappropriate expense claims by highly paid consultants and $16 million in untendered contracts given to consulting companies is being investigated by the provincial auditor general, but the Liberals cancelled a promised third-party review.

One of the OLG board of directors who resigned Monday said she quit because the Liberals failed to act on the board’s advice to strengthen accountability.