OTTAWA - The eHealth scandal in Ontario that recently rocked the provincial government may have been a dress rehearsal for its larger counterpart at the federal level.

The troubled Canada Health Infoway Inc., which like its provincial cousin is trying to convert medical records into electronic form, gets a long-awaited report card next month from the auditor general of Canada.

And so far, the prognosis is poor for the secretive agency, which has already swallowed $1.6 billion of federal money and was promised $500 million more this year by Health Canada.

Created in 2001 as an independent non-profit agency, Infoway has been largely exempt from accountability restraints governing most other federal departments, including freedom-of-information and oversight by federal watchdogs.

Like eHealth Ontario, the arm's-length federal agency has made heavy use of outside consultants -- but unlike all federal departments it is not required to proactively disclose contracts, whether sole-source or otherwise.

Infoway's results so far have raised doubts about how effectively it has managed taxpayers' money over the last eight years.

The agency, for example, was supposed to ensure 50 per cent of the Canadian population had electronic medical records by March 31, 2010.

Earlier this year, Infoway acknowledged that it had reached a level of only 17 per cent. With less than six months to go before its deadline, it appears unlikely to deliver on its ambitious promise.

And a performance evaluation in March by management consultant KPMG LLP found that one of Infoway's projects -- the Public Health Surveillance program -- quickly went over budget and is at least 18 months overdue.

The program was initially given $100 million, but federal funding had to be topped up by another $35 million, KPMG notes in an evaluation that Health Canada required as a condition of Infoway receiving the money.

"Effective governance and oversight ... was slow to develop," KPMG reported. "The initial scope and vision ... proved to be unworkable."

An independent health-care consultant who has been researching Infoway for several years also questions whether taxpayers are getting value.

"After many years of work by many good people all across Canada, and $1.6 billion in funding to support the work effort, I would think there should be more completed," the consultant told The Canadian Press on condition of anonymity.

A senior executive from Infoway declined to respond to detailed questions about accountability and results.

"I'm not comfortable with the line of questioning," Kirk Fergusson, vice-president of corporate affairs, said in an email, "as it may preempt the Office of the Auditor General's report."

Auditor General Sheila Fraser first raised alarm bells about Infoway shortly after its creation, noting in an April 2002 report that the agency lacked ministerial oversight.

"There is no mechanism for correcting (Infoway's) course should that be necessary or, in the extreme case, for terminating it, short of taking legal action for the return of federal funds," she wrote.

Her highly critical 2002 report also noted there was no requirement for value-for-money audits or compliance audits, no access-to-information regime, and no provision for a code of conduct for the directors.

Since 2005, however, this and other arm's-length federal agencies have been required to open their books to her -- and Fraser's report next month is based on an 18-month scrutiny of Infoway's management of taxpayer dollars.

"We worked in full collaboration with the auditor general," said Infoway's media spokeswoman, Christina Scicluna. "We spent a lot of hours with them."

Health Canada completed its own audit of Infoway recently, but declined to release it because it is being "reviewed and finalized," said department spokesman Dave Thomas.

The department also declined to release another independent review of eHealth that it commissioned in the fall of 2008 from two outside experts, Richard Manicom and Dr. Mamoru Watanabe.

However, it's clear Health Canada harbours concerns about Infoway, which works closely with the provinces and territories to co-ordinate and promote efforts to create electronic health records that can be shared.

The $500 million promised to the agency in this year's federal budget had still not been released by the summer, as terms and conditions were still being negotiated with Infoway.

"Before we move forward, we want to make sure there are concrete plans in place to ensure value for money," said Josee Bellemare, press secretary to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

"The government will continue to work with Canada Health Infoway to complete the due diligence process. We want to ensure the prudent use of these resources."

Earlier this month, Ontario's auditor general reported that eHealth Ontario had mismanaged $1 billion of taxpayer money, with little oversight and many delays.

"We did not get value for money for this billion dollars," Jim McCarter said.

The provincial government has since raised doubts that all of Ontario's medical records will be electronic by 2015 -- the same deadline set by Infoway for all of Canada.

McCarter noted there was no evidence of fraud or criminal activity at eHealth Ontario.