For Immediate Release
2 April, 2024
NDP MHA Jordan Brown (Labrador West) was pleased to hear the Auditor General accepted his request from December 13th, 2023 to investigate the use of private health care contracts signed in haste by the Liberal Government. Brown made his request after it was reported that exorbitant costs were paid by the province to private nursing agencies. Amongst his concerns is an agreement worth millions of dollars that was signed after a phone call was made to the Premier’s senior staff.
In his request Brown asked the Auditor General to investigate the government’s use of contracts with third parties for the provision of services, to determine whether the NL Health Services and its predecessors:
a) Spent responsibly on such contracts;
b) Whether the arrangements agreed to were cost-effective; and
c) Whether contracted services could have reasonably been provided in-house by government departments or Crown corporations.
“I appreciate the response from the Auditor General to my request to investigate these contracts and I am looking forward to the final report,” Brown said. “The focus of the government should be to strengthen public health care in our province and not syphon off workers into private health care while lining the pockets of Liberal lobbyists capitalizing on the struggles of health care systems across the country.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca
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