Jilted telehealth firm sues the GN

A U.S. telehealth hardware firm called Aethra Inc. says Nunavut government officials broke their own contracting regulations when they chose a Norwegian company called Tandberg to install 10 new telehealth centres in Nunavut communities.

In a statement of claim filed last month at the Nunavut court of justice, Aethra’s lawyers are asking the court to declare that Nunavut broke those rules, and to order the GN not to enter a contract with Tandberg for the telehealth work until after the court has dealt with Aethra’s motion.

Aethra and Tandberg were among several companies that submitted responses to a request for proposals the GN issued in December 2001.

Aethra, Tandberg and one other company ended up on a short-list for the job. After each company demonstrated their products in March 2002, the GN awarded the contract to Tandberg.

But Aethra says the GN either made a mistake, or used criteria not in the RFP to award the contract. They assert in their statement of claim that a review of the “scoring” of the proposal would show that the GN broke its own rules.

But the GN won’t let Aethra see those documents, saying they’re not allowed to under the Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Nunavut’s information and privacy commissioner has asked the GN to show cause why the information cannot be released.