The thing is, as mentioned indirectly in the second paragraph of the article, the consultants were from Alberta, so they had to travel to get here. And in the private sector, it's perfectly normal to have your employer pay for your meals while you're travelling on business. I seriously doubt they could get any decent private-sector consultant if they didn't pay for their meals while on the road. The article is trying to suggest that they shouldn't be expensing their meals because they make so much money, but that's simply how the private sector works. Your salary is compensation for your work, travel expenses are considered additional expenses.
You'll also notice that they're expensing small and inexpensive take-out, eat-at-your-desk type food. You know what this means? They aren't expensing pricey room service meals - they're running down to Tim's instead. In fact, as it says in the 9th paragraph of the article:
Consultant Donna Strating makes $2,700 a day at eHealth. She does not take the $50 per diem to which she is entitled, but charges for miscellaneous meals and snacks.
This means that she would normally be entitled to take $50 a day, no questions asked, with the assumption that she'd spend it on food and other necessities. Based on the items listed, it doesn't look like she's spending anywhere near $50 a day on food. (Judging by the tone of the article, if there were any expensive restaurant dinners the article would have said so.) So rather than taking $50 a day, buying cheap food and pocketing the rest, she's billing for her actual expenses only.
If the Star wanted to foment outrage about this eHealth thing, they could have done so in a number of ways. Some other media outlets have been focusing on how there might not have been a proper tender process for this contract, which is a much more serious issue. If the Star wanted to take a different attack from other media outlets, they could ask why we needed a private-sector consultant from Alberta in the first place? We're a rather populous province with a good number of post-secondary institutions - why isn't the necessary expertise available in Ontario? Why doesn't the Ontario public service have the expertise to implement government policies? Does this happen often? Should we perhaps be working on developing the expertise in-province?
As it stands, the whole thing reads like an especially low-quality attack ad. I expected better from te Star.
1 comment:
"The article is trying to suggest that they shouldn't be expensing their meals because they make so much money, but that's simply how the private sector works."
This is how the public sector works too. Your post is right on.
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