The former chief financial officer fired last week over an expense scandal will not receive severance, the province announced Monday in a press release.

However an Alberta Health Services spokesperson said nobody is available to comment on the one-line announcement.

Allaudin Merali was fired last week as chief financial officer with AHS after a CBC News investigation revealed he charged almost $350,000 to taxpayers for lavish dinners, bottles of wine and repairs to his luxury car while he was with Capital Health between January 2005 and August 2008.

AHS also announced Monday that Health Minister Fred Horne is directing an independent forensic audit on Merali's expenses to determine if they adhered to the policies in place under the former health region, or under AHS current policies.

The audit will be done by an external accounting firm to be appointed this week.

The results will be made public and referred to Alberta’s Auditor General and Alberta Health, said the release.

“In the interests of transparency and a full understanding of the issues, we felt it was necessary to have a third-party audit,” said AHS acting board chair Catherine Roozen.

Last week AHS asked the auditor general to examine its current policies.

AHS also said it will post records of paid expenses for the CEO, and executive vice-presidents and senior vice-presidents that report directly to the CEO and the board.

The expenses will be summarized, posted on an AHS web page in the coming weeks and updated quarterly.