The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Assembly will be following up on the Auditor General’s recent report into travel nurse contracts to ensure that all recommendations have been implemented, but the president of the Registered Nurses’ Union wants them to conduct a full investigation.
The committee says it shares the AG’s “serious concerns” about NL Health Services’ “failure” to follow proper procurement processes, use controls to verify that contracts were followed, and to adequately plan for the use of agency nursing.
Further, the committee will be contacting the health authority “immediately” to ask for an action plan on the AG’s recommendations, and to advise that officials will be asked to appear at a future public hearing on the matter.
The Auditor General’s Health Sector Contracts Phase 1 Report (VOCM News)
RNU president Yvette Coffey, however, wants the committee to go further.
She believes the investigation needs to be independent, and she wants them to be “fully transparent” about what they find.
In reference to the AG’s use of the word “fraud,” Coffey says if laws were broken, those responsible must be held accountable through a court of law and through the associations that represent them—such as through the codes of ethics and codes of conduct they must abide by.
