Top FSSA Official's Contract Raises Questions

[hippiechick]

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4856301

Top FSSA official's contract raises questions
13 Investigates: FSSA contract dispute

Indiana Democrats are calling on Inspector General David Thomas and Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi to investigate the state's arrangement with Fort Wayne resident Dick Rhoad.

13 Investigates first raised questions about Rhoad's contract with the Family and Social Services Administration two months ago. As the agency's chief financial officer, Rhoad oversees the spending of billions of dollars every year on services for Indiana families. FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob said he is very happy with Rhoad's work.

… snip …

Roob was so impressed with his CFO, in fact, that in January he allowed Rhoad to resign and, according to a new contract, hired him back the very same day with a bigger paycheck. Now, instead of getting paid about $100,000 as a state employee, each year Rhoad gets $180,000 as a private contractor - for doing the same thing he did before.

… snip …

So why make the change? The answer lies in a new Fort Wayne neighborhood where you'll find Dick Rhoad's home - 120 miles from his office in downtown Indianapolis. In his first six months on the job, Rhoad billed the state more than $14,000 to commute from home to work. Week after week, according to state documents, taxpayers paid for his gas money, his meals and his stays at Downtown hotels.

Eventually, the state budget agency told FSSA it couldn't do that, which meant Dick Rhoad would have to pay his own commuting expenses. But FSSA figured a way around that by making Rhoad's position a contract job that pays an extra $80,000 a year to cover benefits and that commuting expense.

… snip …

More at link.

… this could get interesting !!

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[Voltaire]

1. LOL....see my post in the wrong thread

These people make me ill.

[hippiechick]

2. Sorta the WRONG outcome, but ... sigh.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060510/NEWS01/605100493

State ends $540,000 controversy
Ex-FSSA official outsourced for an extra $80,000 in pay will return to state payroll at original salary

By Mary Beth Schneider

After a week of rejecting complaints, the state on Tuesday canceled a controversial deal that let a top state official resign his $100,000 job, then do the same work for the state as a contractor for $180,000 a year.

Richard Rhoad, the chief financial officer of Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration, will return to his job at the state agency. Harry Gonso, chief of staff to Gov. Mitch Daniels, said in a statement that Daniels agreed the move is "appropriate and necessary."

"Sometimes what is legal and within the rules is still not enough. Appearances and public confidence also matter," Gonso said.

Rhoad had resigned his FSSA job Jan. 14, one day after he and other state officials signed off on a $540,000, three-year contract that gave his company virtually the same duties, but for $80,000 more a year than he had been making. FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob said last week that the higher pay compensated Rhoad for the loss of health and other benefits he received as a state employee.
Rhoad requested the return to state employment, according to a statement from Roob, who defended the contract as "legal and ethical" but said the agency was "sensitive to the public perception."

... more at link ...

[izzybeans]

3. I suppose it was treated as another "everyone does this" type of thing.

It is the nature of government contracting. If 13 looked deeper I would bet what they find would be quite shocking. Privatization is the biggest source of government waste via the contractual red tape and increased transaction costs it creates. But also contracters can play the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game and pass on ghost services to subcontracters and pay themselves twice for one job.

This guy is just the tip of the ice-berg.

[LisaLynne]

4. I agree and that's just sad.

Not that I agree but that this seems to be the state of things. When you think of the things that could be done with the money that gets moved around with stuff like this, it just gets sickening.

[hippiechick]

5. ... Roob's back at it ... groan !

www.starnews.com

State privatization effort questioned
Bidders after FSSA claims-processing job have had problems in other states

Consortiums headed by IBM and Accenture are seeking the $1 billion contract that could become a contentious issue for the Daniels administration. The Family and Social Services Administration is expected to announce a private partner within a month.

Both contenders have run into problems with similar deals in other states: Legislators in Texas last month threatened to fire Accenture or ban it from other state contracts following a barrage of complaints. A partner in the IBM group, Affiliated Computer Services, lost part of a Georgia contract two years ago because of problems processing claims. Texas-based ACS also is the former employer of FSSA Secretary E. Mitchell Roob Jr.

While FSSA officials initially hoped to select a contractor by mid-May, spokesman Dennis Rosebrough said Tuesday that officials need more time. "It's a big contract -- very complicated -- and we want to make sure we've got it right before we move forward," he said.

Rosebrough said Roob will not be involved in the selection process because of his former ties to ACS. (:eyes: Yeah, right !!) Privatizing the agency's applications and eligibility review process is intended to improve service to needy Hoosiers, while reducing errors and the expense to taxpayers.

... more at link ...