OLG chief executive Kelly McDougald, right, seen in this 2007 photo, was fired on Monday by Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Ontario's finance minister has fired the head of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and accepted the resignations of the entire board of directors in an attempt to head off another scandal.

Dwight Duncan told a news conference at Queen's Park on Monday that he was "taking action to ensure protection of taxpayers money."

Duncan said there had been problems with expenses and they represented "symptoms of much larger problems" at OLG.

The corporation's CEO, Kelly McDougald, was fired "for cause," said the minister. The entire six-member board stepped down.

The provincial auditor general has been asked to conduct a thorough review of OLG expenses.

Both McDougald and the board members were brought in to clean up the scandal-plagued organization.

Duncan released two years' worth of expense claims filed by OLG executives and senior staff that include questionable claims filed by executives going back years.

They included the cancellation of a deposit on a Florida condo by Michael Sharland, the OLG's former vice-president of security and surveillance who took a paid leave of absence in 2007.

Another OLG executive charged the agency nearly $500 for a nanny so that she could attend meetings during a four-month period in 2006.

Other senior staff billed the agency for small items like a $7 pen refill, a $1.12 cloth grocery bag and a $30 car wash.

Hudak calls for Duncan firing

Weekend reports suggested that a freedom-of-information request by the provincial Tories is behind the shakeup.

The Progressive Conservatives made a number of requests concerning the spending habits of OLG executives.

Duncan's announcement on Monday is an apparent attempt to deflect the results of those inquiries.

Shortly after Duncan's announcement, the Conservative leader levelled a number of scathing criticisms at the Liberal government called for the finance minister to be fired.

"The minister came forward with his phony remorse today simply because he got caught," Tim Hudak told reporters Monday afternoon.

The Tories had asked for information on the spending, Hudak said. The Liberals "knew it would be coming up in the opening session of the legislature, [so they] put it out today to head off the scandal," he said.

"But quite frankly, you can switch one Liberal hand-picked CEO with another one. But you're not going to stop the scandalous spending until [Premier Dalton] McGuinty sets the tone by firing one of his ministers.

"There's a concept called ministerial accountability. You can play musical CEOs all you want," Hudak said.

"That's not going to bring an end to this mess. We need the minister to step down."

The changes at OLG also come just a few months after a scandal at the government-run eHealth agency led to the resignation of CEO Sarah Kramer and board chair Alan Hudson.

The eHealth scandal resulted from untendered contracts, as well as lavish spending and picayune expense claims by consultants.

Duncan said Monday that Ontario McGuinty will address the problems at the OLG and outline a "broader set of initiatives" aimed at ending the expense claims problems within the provincial government.

According to the OLG's website, the lotteries generate "approximately $6 billion in annual revenues and $2 billion in annual profit" for the province.

With files from The Canadian Press