News Release

FREDERICTON (GNB) – Auditor General Paul Martin tabled a report today in the legislative assembly, highlighting concerns related to travel nurse contracts within the Department of Social Development, Horizon Health Network and Vitalité Health Network.

Between Jan. 1, 2022, and Feb. 29, 2024, the government spent over $173 million on travel nurses.

“Our audit confirmed that the contracts with private nursing agencies were not reflective of best practices and did not demonstrate value for money,” said Martin.

The issues noted in the audit included a lack of data-driven decision-making, no vendor-selection processes, and no proper contract development, management or oversight.

Martin said Vitalité Health Network did not provide his office with requested information, contravening the Auditor General Act.

“It is critical that government organizations understand the authority of the auditor general’s office and comply with the Auditor General Act,” said Martin.

At the time of the audit, Vitalité had spent over $123 million on the use of contracted health-care workers, with over $93 million going to Canadian Health Labs.

Martin said the pricing structure varied greatly between service providers, however Canadian Health Labs charged significantly more than the others to provide registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and personal support workers.

“While Vitalité cited the requirement for the provision of French-language services as the reason for the large contracts with Canadian Health Labs, we found that the contract only required limited French-language services in some hospitals,” said Martin.

The auditor general noted that Social Development and Horizon focused on the short-term use of travel nurses. This resulted in total spending of almost $48 million for Horizon. While guidelines were in place for vendor selection, there were no selection criteria or scoring matrixes to support the awarding of contracts.

Martin credited Horizon for its processes to ensure services paid for had been received, but noted inadequate support for payment of travel expenses.

He said the largest contract signed by Social Development was written by the contractor and lacked adequate legal review, resulting in undue risk to the province.

“We have serious concerns pertaining to the lack of oversight for invoices paid by the Department of Social Development,” said Martin.

The auditor general made a total of 34 recommendations to the Department of Social Development, Horizon Health Network and Vitalité Health Network. The report is available online.