Even though its efforts to battle the COVID-19 pandemic were panned, execs with the Public Health Agency (PHA) gave themselves five-figure bonuses, says Blacklock's Reporter..No manager was fired despite an internal audit that found the PHA lacked “needed breadth and expertise to lead.”.“Almost everybody got a bonus,” said Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West), who requested the records that showed the bonuses..“They shut down a pandemic early warning system, they threw out personal protective equipment, their president was hauled before the House of Commons for contempt and then almost everyone got a bonus.”.The Agency in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons disclosed last year it paid $1,453,000 to 68 executives and 10 employees, the equivalent of $18,600 each..Records showed 88% of executives received a bonus even as auditors and Commons committees uncovered COVID-19 mismanagement..“It tells me this is not a performance award, it’s a participation award,” said McCauley..“These are very expensive participation ribbons.”.The PHA’s pandemic preparedness was “amateurish to be kind,” said McCauley..“To me this is about accountability.”.The PHA was created by Parliament in 2004 for pandemic preparedness and fully funded at $675 million a year in 2019..“We want to be as ready as possible,” managers said in a February 13, 2020 memo written just a month before the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic..Records showed managers instead closed three of nine warehouses containing medical supplies, threw away millions of high-grade masks and gowns and then shipped date-expired goods to provinces..“The agency lacked everything,” Sen. Éric Forest (Que.) told a March 5, 2020 hearing of the Senate national finance committee..Managers subsequently lost more than $106 million in advance payments for rush orders of medical supplies that were never delivered, according to an April 1 Inquiry Of Ministry. .A 2021 internal audit cited the PHA for “confusion,” “limited public health expertise” and “capacity gaps.”.Auditors found management was so disorganized it sent most employees home in the first days of the pandemic. The whole PHA lacked “the needed breadth and expertise to lead,” said the audit..The PHA went through three presidents, including Iain Stewart, a $321,000-a year executive censured for contempt. Stewart was the first federal employee since 1891 to be summoned to the House floor for public shaming after he refused to release records on the firing of Chinese scientists at the Agency’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg..Records showed the Department of Health that supervises the PHA also paid bonuses worth $4.2 million to 322 executives and employees, the equivalent of $13,200 each..Federal executives are entitled to bonuses worth up to 6% of salary under a Performance Management Program For Executives approved by the Treasury Board.
