Lawmakers Continue To Question Millions Spent By DHS
by June 17, 2015 6:37 pm 127 views
Marine Glisovic with our content partner, KATV Ch. 7, reports:
Lawmakers continue to try and get to the bottom of who approved a $140 million software project without any real oversight at the Department of Human Services. It was just more than two months ago that Tim Lampe, former DHS’s Director of Quality Assurance, was assigned as project manager.
The software that is supposed to be used to check the eligibility of Medicaid and food stamp recipients is months behind in development.
According to DHS Director John Selig, they began re-verification Tuesday night of those qualified for Medicaid and food stamps, and while this process should have started months ago, continued problems among vendors developing the computer system needed to do so is costing taxpayers.
During a Legislative Joint Performance Review meeting, lawmakers heard from vendors for the first time.
Lawmakers continued to show frustration during Wednesday’s meeting while questioning Selig, asking who is accountable for approving a project that will now cost taxpayers up to $200 million.
“[Reporter: Who approved all of these contracts?] They’re approved at different points, in our department, the department of information services, they get various levels of review. [Reporter: Where does the buck stop though? At the director?] It stops with me,” said Selig.
“This thing got started out of the shoot without anybody really overseeing this, it was something that was trying to be done in house, whose directive that was to decide to go about doing it that way, that’s what we’re trying to get to the bottom of,” said Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton.
Some other concerns heard from lawmakers today included that these contracts are paying vendors for time and material and not for a finished product. Some questioned if that would deter these vendors from fixing the issue versus just continuing to collect money for software with glitches.
Read or watch the full report here.