By Mario deSantis, February 16, 1999

In one of my previous paper(1) I reported that SAHO has reached such a big business dimension to break the check and balances required to ensure the progressive and democratic development of our provincial social and economic setting. In particular, I pointed out that SAHO manages a  billion dollar pension fund, a fund which is specifically protected by legislation and which cannot be attached to any discretional financial arrangement.

This morning all of a sudden, and while working on a Systems Dynamics article, my thoughts  wandered away from the subject on hand and for some reasons they focused on the recent $4 million purchase of the SAP payroll system by SAHO(2) (3). As I thought about this outrageous  expense of $1 to $3 million above the expected cost as stated in the related resolution of the 1997 SAHO Convention(4), it didn't take very long for me to come up with a consequential ominous suspicion. I reasoned, SAHO is a service agency and therefore it requires only the funding to cover its accountable operational expenses with no provision for any unduly reserve; further, healthcare districts don't operate to experience an operational surplus and therefore they cannot afford any money to give away to SAHO; I thought then to the millions of dollars which have been dumped into the secretive healthcare Stargarden payroll project(5), to the secretive six digit dollar figure provided in 1993 to compensate for the voluntarily resignation of Hewitt Helmsing(6), past CEO of the Saskatchewan Health-Care Association, and then to the current $4 million spent on the new SAP payroll package. I related the misallocation of all such monies to the autocratic management of the healthcare industry(7), to SAHO's determination against being audited by the Provincial Auditor(8), to the stories of people close to SAHO, to the legal threats I received from both Hewitt Helmsing(9) and SAHO(10), to my previous expressed suspicion that SAHO may operate above the law(11), to the experienced mental models in the healthcare environment(12), to the recent article "Hiding behind gag orders too common"(13) of The StarPhoenix,... That was it. It was enough - to express my suspicion that SAHO may indeed have corrupted the integrity of the legislated protected pension fund.

Endnotes

1. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Healthcare Reform and New Economic Policies, Part 6. Public interest and the need for restructuring the operations of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations. By Mario deSantis, April 30, 1997. Published in the North Central Internet News on November 29, 1998

2. SAHO Payroll Policies: Saving Money out of Ongoing Catastrophes, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

3. SAHO getting new computer system, by Gord Brock, The Leader Post, Regina, Saskatchewan, February 6, 1999

4. Letter dated April 28, 1997 from Mario deSantis to all Chairpersons and CEO of Saskatchewan District Health Boards. http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-letterToChairsCEOs-Apr28-97.htm

5. There are sources indicating that 4.5 million dollars were allocated for the programming of this contractual Stargarden project. At this time of writing, SAHO has no clue of the notion of marginal cost, value added or what the New Economy means. The above mentioned cost of 4.5 million dollars doesn't include the mobilization of internal resources.

6. Article in The Leader Post "Helmsing, SHA settle: Severance not disclosed," Regina, September 29, 1993 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-article-HelmsingSettlement-Sept29-93.htm

7. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Healthcare reform and Authoritarian Management, by Mario deSantis, September 30, 1998. Published in the North Central Internet News

8. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Healthcare Reform and New Economic Policies, Part 1, by Mario deSantis, October 18, 1998. Published in the North Central Internet News

9. E-mail dated 12/7/98 received from Randy Langard, lawyer for Hewitt Helmsing. This letter is posted under the subpage "letters" at the site North Central Internet News http://ftlcomm.com/ensign/letters.html

10. Letter dated May 7, 1997 from McKercher McKercher & Whitmore and response by Mario deSantis. http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-letters-McKercher-deSantis-May97.htm

11. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN:Healthcare Reform and New Economic Policies, Part 3: Is the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) above the Law? By Mario deSantis, November 1, 1998. Published in the North Central Internet News

12. Examples of mental models in Saskatchewan health care and racism, by Mario deSantis, August 2, 1998. Published in the North Central Internet News

13. Hiding behind gag orders too common, SP Opinions, The StarPhoenix, Page C4-Weekend Forum, February 6, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan