The total cross sections of He and He⁺ ionization by an electron impact are calculated in the first Born approximation. Calculations of the matrix elements are carried out by the Fock-Dirac multiconfiguration relativistic method using an intermediate type of coupling with orthogonal functions of the initial and final states. A single-electron wave function of the continuous spectrum for an Auger electron is obtained using the Fock-Dirac single-configuration method. The results of the calculations performed with orthogonal and nonorthogonal wave functions of the initial and final states are compared. The ionization cross sections are calculated for cases in which a knock-on electron of the continuous spectrum is described by both the orthogonal and nonorthogonal wave functions with respect to the wave functions of the core electrons.