Gregg Phillips was the state's No. 2 social services official several years ago, and he led a push to hire a private company to evaluate applications for public assistance.
Now his Austin-based company, AutoGov Inc., has received $207,500 since November to help the state eliminate errors in deciding whether an applicant gets food stamps or other aid and how much recipients get. AutoGov was hired without other companies having a chance to bid for the work.
Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said that the agency's commissioner, Tom Suehs, and his predecessor, Albert Hawkins, agreed that the company's software might alleviate the problem.
"They both faced the same problem - high error rates - and thought it offered a potential solution," Goodman said.
What does that quotation even mean? The one saving grace of greedy crooked people is that they can't help themselves. They keep on being greedy and crooked. It is like an addiction, they can't help themselves.
ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News continues with the latest outrage:
Exclusive: State privatization champion gets contract to help clear up welfare mess Phillips helped former Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, fashion a 2003 legislative requirement that privately run call centers be used to help process applicants for Medicaid, CHIP, food stamps and cash assistance. He testified before lawmakers on the idea.
Hawkins says the state's key misstep came two years later, when lawmakers ordered a 40 percent reduction of state eligibility staff. But his critics have said he didn't stand up to the state's GOP leaders and demand enough money and time to adequately support and test the proposed public-private screening system.
It was launched in late 2005, after a large outsourcing company, Accenture, won an $899 million, five-year contract. But soon after the state notified its own workers that they might lose their jobs and shifted duties to Accenture - and its main subcontractor, Maximus - the project went sour.
Call centers were jammed, people were wrongfully cut from benefits, and it took months for services to begin once Texans applied.
Most infamously, applicants for a time were given a wrong fax number for sending pay stubs and other private documents. It belonged to a Seattle warehouse that had no part of the deal. That company shredded and threw away the paperwork after unsuccessfully trying for weeks to alert Texas that something was amiss.
And what about this performance says "we can fix these same problems in your Food Stamp program"? It seems that malfunctioning government agencies and fanciful horror stories about government programs disqualify the government from doing health care (or anything else these bozos want to privatize) , but this same standard does NOT apply to private suppliers who get Mulligans anytime they want, without even facing competitive bids.
The moral of this tale is that ideologues will never see the reality of their half baked ideas as they work out in reality. Further greedy ,self-serving piggies like Good hair and his minions will never stop being greedy piglets until they are busted out of office - better - prosecuted for malfeasance . Unfortunately the reporter could find no specific laws which were violated in this case. I can always hope for another Ronnie Earl to emerge, but don't bank on it...
