ORNGE has taken another step toward transparency, making public the salary of its No. 2 man and the salaries of other executives.The move came two days after ORNGE announced it had hired former airline executive Rob Giguere as chief operating officer but then refused to disclose his salary.
This same secrecy led to the Star investigation that sparked the ORNGE scandal last year, when it was discovered that the publicly funded air ambulance service hid the $1.4-million salary of former CEO Dr. Chris Mazza — as well as the salaries of other executives — for several years.
Thursday, ORNGE did an about-face and released Giguere’s salary — $240,000 plus a performance bonus of up to 25 per cent — in what the air ambulance service said was “in the spirit of openness and transparency.”
ORNGE has also published on its website a range of salaries for other executives. The highest salary possible, ORNGE says, would be the chief executive officer, which is capped at $418,000. That position is currently filled by interim CEO Ron McKerlie, a senior provincial official brought in to run ORNGE early this year.
McKerlie is in the running for the permanent job. His current provincial salary, according to the annual Sunshine List, is $335,000, including taxable benefits.
ORNGE has also confirmed that positions with its new board of directors are voluntary. Members of the former board of the non-profit service were paid as much as $200,000 a year.
ORNGE is also now disclosing expenses for executives. A review of those expenses by the Star shows they are moderate, typically low-cost trips to check out the service’s far-flung bases.
ORNGE has yet to disclose Mazza’s expenses over the six years he ran ORNGE.
Conservative MPP Frank Klees this week said the “root of the problems at ORNGE was a lack of transparency and accountability,” adding “it doesn’t appear that things have changed.”
“What I conclude from that is that very little has been learned at ORNGE,” he said.
Klees, an ardent critic of ORNGE, said the service needs to make accountability a priority.
“If they should have learned anything — the new board, the interim CEO — is that the people of this province expect, especially at that agency, to have full disclosure about what’s going on.”
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Kevin Donovan
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