VICTORIA — The B.C. government is again facing tough questions about its bungled firing of eight health researchers after an internal government report alleged two of the researchers did break the rules on awarding drug research contracts and were involved in conflicts of interest. One researcher, who was also a part-time manager in the health ministry, used his influence to award contracts to himself, while another attempted to secure work for her husband, concluded an almost three-year probe by financial investigators in the province’s comptroller general’s office, obtained by The Vancouver Sun. None of the allegations in the report have been proven. The controversial June 2015 report considered many of the original allegations made by a health ministry whistleblower against researchers Malcolm Maclure and Rebecca Warburton were substantiated. Those allegations formed part of the basis for government’s decision in 2012 to fire Maclure, Warburton and six others in what has become the biggest human resources scandal in government’s history. Government heavily censored the comptroller general’s report on “personal privacy” grounds to remove virtually all the critical information before it was publicly released in December. The Vancouver Sun has obtained an uncensored copy. Government lawyers served the newspaper with legal demands the report be returned or destroyed. The Sun published the story as a matter of public interest. “The results of the investigation confirm the ministry’s concerns of PSD’s (the health ministry’s pharmaceutical services branch) inappropriate procurement practices and contracting irregularities, including suspected conflicts of interest,” claims the report. “The results of the investigation also confirm that the informant’s allegations, with certain minor exceptions, have substantial merit and warrant further investigation by appropriate parties.” Despite that, government settled wrongful dismissal lawsuits with Maclure and Warburton, paying out an undisclosed amount of public funds. The province also rehired Maclure and apologized for his firing. Allegations contained in the report were put to Maclure and Warburton by The Sun, but neither would comment. The report adds yet more questions to the long-running health firings case; mainly: How can the public reconcile the report’s allegations of wrongdoing with months of government backpedalling, apologies and settlements in the case? Is the report wrong, or have the government firings been even more mismanaged than previously admitted? NDP critic Adrian Dix said the report appears to once again smear the reputations of people whom government has already absolved of wrongdoing. “The individuals involved have been repeatedly exonerated,” he said. Dix has, in the past, blamed the government for changes to the drug research system that contributed to the vague conflict and contracting allegations. The comptroller general’s report also recommended additional investigations to determine whether taxpayer money was spent appropriately within the health ministry’s pharmaceutical services division (PSD) — though government refused to say if it followed that advice. Investigators cited “compelling evidence of multiple conflict of interest situations,” including with Maclure, whom they allege effectively awarded contracts to himself through his part-time managerial job in the ministry, his role at two universities and his private research team.

A significant issue with the report was that neither Maclure nor Warburton were interviewed by the investigators. Instead, investigators reviewed contracts, emails and data analytics reports. They also reviewed transcripts from the health ministry’s discredited internal human resources probe, according to the report. Investigators did interview the whistleblower, as well as current ministry staff. Government fired the eight researchers in 2012 after a whistleblower took concerns to B.C.’s Auditor General about contracting irregularities, mishandling of sensitive health data and conflicts of interest. One of the researchers, co-op student Roderick MacIsaac, committed suicide. Two years later, the premier apologized to MacIsaac’s family, saying government had overreacted, with the firings based partly on an internal human resources investigation that an outside lawyer later determined was flawed and unfair to those accused. The province rehired some researchers, apologized to others and settled numerous wrongful dismissal lawsuits. The comptroller general’s probe ran parallel to all of that activity. The office has a mandate to ensure the overall integrity of government’s finances. It did not examine why or how the researchers were fired, but instead whether there were appropriate practices within the health ministry’s pharmaceutical branch, its drug research teams and researchers. Conflicts of interest Much of the comptroller general’s report focused on Maclure, who — until he was fired in 2012 — served as the health ministry’s part-time co-director of research and evidence development in its pharmaceutical services division, with an annual salary of $41,051. Investigators alleged he had “multiple incompatible roles as both a ministry employee and external researcher” because he directed taxpayer-funded drug research contracts to universities where he was a professor, and in some cases to his personal research team. “This enabled him to influence key ministry decisions and placed him in a position to benefit both financially and professionally,” read the comptroller general’s report. In effect, he “represented ‘both sides’ of funding negotiations” and “directed funding to his own external research groups,” read the report. “The IU team found evidence that Mr. Maclure was aware of his conflicts of interest but did not appear to make any effort to recuse himself from specific activities,” said the report. “The Team also found evidence that Mr. Maclure attempted to conceal his activities. In the IU team’s opinion, Mr. Maclure’s actions demonstrate he was not singularly focused on serving the interests of his employer (the province).” In one example, investigators pointed to the $69-million Alzheimer’s Drug Therapy Initiative, designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of cholinesterase inhibitors in the treatment of the disease and whether government should publicly pay for those medications. They believed Maclure was in conflict of interest on a $2.4-million contract because he developed a research proposal with university academics, evaluated that proposal as a senior ministry employee and then conducted the research as a co-investigator in his capacity as a part-time professor at UVic. Investigators said Maclure “was in an actual conflict of interest in four of the five PSD initiatives examined” during the probe. Another case involved the Education for Quality Improvement in Patient Care (EQIP) program to help doctors improve the way they prescribe drugs. One contract, worth almost $1.3 million, went from Maclure at the pharmaceutical ministry through the University of B.C., where he was university representative on the project, and was then subcontracted back to University of Victoria, where Maclure was a professor and his research team conducted the research.