Monday, March 11, 2013

This Day In Snookland (ctd)...Pulling Off The Mask To Reveal...


...The Evil Grin Of The Golden Era Golem (Again).


Remember, just a couple of weeks ago, how that Auditor General guy, Mr. John Doyle (you know, the fine fellow that the Snooklandian Wizardry is sending packing back to to the land of Oz) raised the alarm on the folley our continuing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a thing called 'Maximus'.

And no....

Just so you know, 'Maximus' is not a term that the (not)Premier uses to describe the anatomy of various and assorted sundry fellows who are not her ex-husband when she's working the crowd down at Mark Breslin's comedy emporiums (and/or during stump speeches).

Instead, it is an American private data collecting and processing company that Gordon Campbell picked to screw up our health care system.

And, as Mr. Doyle pointed, out Maximus has been doing a very fine job of it, at the expense of real live British Columbians that used to do it, since 2005.

And it is this continued screwing up that the AG alerted us to a couple of weeks ago given that our contract was scheduled to continue until 2015.

So....

What do you think the Wizards went and did today?

Can you say 'extension?

From the Wizards' most recent PR press-fluffer (with Ms. 'Say Anything' on the Soundcloud and everything!):

VICTORIA - The government of B.C. has extended the Master Service Agreement with MAXIMUS BC by five years to continue to deliver Health Insurance BC services until March 31, 2020....

{snippety doo-dah}

...The cost to renew the contract is $264.3 million. This includes the base services plus additional projects such as supporting PharmaNet modernization and the deployment of the new BC Services Card...


Now.

Did you catch that last bit?

You know that last bit about the 'new BC Services Card'.

You know the all encompassing 'Papers Please!' thingy straight out of Orwell that is going to cost us a cool $150 million that the Snooklandian Minister responsible justified thusly a few weeks ago:

...Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid says the new card has features which will help cut down on Care Card fraud in the province...

Unfortunately (or maybe I should say 'unsurprisingly'), the Snooklandian Minister responsible could not actually back up her 'fraud' claim justification with any, you know.....Facts:

...(W)hile MacDiarmid says there is some fraud happening she can't say how much it is costing taxpayers.

"There is a lot of estimates out there and I don't think there is anything difinitive you know people have made estimates and I don't think it is a good idea to do that but we do believe there is some fraud and we believe there is some safety issues around it as well as the monetary issues."..



Now do you get why we have no money for, say, oh I dunno....

A real families-first childcare program?



_______
Keith Reynolds of the CCPA has a good post up on this with important additional information, including the fact that the new contract is actually costing us 40% more, year-by-year than the old one....Sheesh.
And the 'contract' will run until the year two thousand and freaking twenty?...Really?....That's how far out this neverending Golden Era grift will go??!!!...Look...I know this thing is nothing compared to the billions and billions and billions of 'deferred' payments to the IPPs...But criminy!....What's next...A re-parachuting in of Mr. Hahn with a 374 year contract to run the almost always empty (but always business friendly!) Seawest Lounges on board the ferries at a cost to us of, say 700 gazillion bars of gold bullion?....Super sheesh.

.

6 comments:

Kim said...

This Government has no Mandate to sign contracts! We should not be liable for anything they sign. Maybe it'll take a Class Action Lawsuit against the BC Liberal Party. Where is the NDP on this?

James King said...

I'd say this in one contract the new government can get out of, and pay some exorbitant penalty besides, and still be on the plus side when the costs are totaled up and the dust settles. We already know we're not getting value for money on the existing contract.

Grant G said...

Very disturbing indeed, their contract was good until 2015.
Why the rush, why ink an extension just weeks before the election?

That`s your answer Ross K.

In my opinion, these large tech deals with corrupt Governments involve envelopes of cash and possibly $millions in grease-the-skids payments.

Just think about even a 1% kickback.

And also to gum up the next NDP Government..

10 teachers deal gimmick, 10 year nurses deal gimmick.

Including fast-tracking a few more IPPs while they`re at it.

BC Liberals=scum,slime and dung beetles.

And those are their good qualities!

Bill said...

This is my conclusion after reading this post (and all the other past posts) on this long in the tooth BC Liberal government.

Nothing they do is competent, everything they have done is corrupt.

The voters will soon confirm this reality.

Anonymous said...

so the BC Liberal legacy:

selling out the province to friends and cronies, selling out our jobs, selling our private personal information, selling our Crown corporations, selling our Crown land and everything else to whatever foreign corporation comes along.

In front of our very eyes, the province has been sold to the 1% who don't live here, don't pay taxes here and don't give a #$&$@&* about British Columbia or British Columbians. We are merely expendable widgets to be bought and sold in whatever way increased the corporate bottom-line.

And for this whole-sale looting of our province, we didn't even get paid off enough to sustain our social services. In fact we're in huge debt.

It is unbelievable how the BC Liberals have brought this province to its knees. And with the whole-hearted endorsement of mainstream media.

God we need a decent government.

Anonymous said...

These contracts and agreements should be reopened by the incoming auditor general and perhaps even a forensic auditing of the deals by an independent auditor is in order.

If the contracts are not in the best interest of the taxpayer and/or any form of malfeasance in the awarding of them can be proven, I would think that they would be rescinded by the incoming government renegotiated or terminated without penalties.

It is unfathomable that any agreement signed by this current liberal regime, would not be open to renegotiation or even cancellation, given the current cloud of suspicion hanging over this tainted government.