The provincial government's e-health scandal has raised the ghost of a local scandal past.

Lost amid the current hubbub – in which three Fraser Health Authority employees face allegations of breach of trust – is how exactly one of the three, former White Rock Sea Festival Society president James Taylor, got the job at all.

The timing is suspect, to say the least.

In 2000, when Taylor was hired as director of communications systems for a now-defunct health authority – later absorbed by FHA – it was less than a month after he received a conditional sentence for defrauding the Sea Festival of $40,000 in 1997, a charge to which he pleaded guilty.

How could anybody be hired for another position of trust under those circumstances – especially one in which involves the public purse?

Assuming it can't believably be dismissed as one-off incompetence in the screening process, such a hiring can only lead to suspicions Taylor had influential acquaintances who were willing to bail him out of a jeopardy in which he had placed himself.

It can also only fuel the view of skeptics who believe white collar criminals who have the right connections will seldom pay a significant price for their immoral behaviour and abuse of trust; that there is, indeed, one law for the rich and another for the poor.

Regardless of whether Taylor is found guilty or even charged over the latest allegations – that he was involved in fraudulently approving more than $250,000 in contracts – the scandal can only contribute to a growing suspicion of the entire system of Health Authorities, many of which seem to be operating without adequate government oversight.

For those who wish to point partisan fingers at Gordon Campbell's B.C. Liberals, it's worth noting Taylor's unorthodox and oddly-timed hiring came during the NDP's watch. It's clear this scandal points to underlying problems that can not be easily demarcated on partisan lines.

They are problems of greed and lack of integrity that threaten the fabric of our society, and if they are not properly addressed, they will come back to haunt us again and again.