Very few days pass before we learn of yet another ripoff of the state of Florida made possible by Jeb Bush, greasing the skids for his cronies.
Fla. lawmakers to probe food stamp calls in IndiaBy TAMARA LUSH
April 16, 2009
Florida lawmakers on Thursday questioned why customer call centers in India are handling questions from food stamp recipients who use a debit-like card to buy groceries.
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Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Judi Spann told The Associated Press that the state paid JPMorgan Chase & Co. to handle a range of services for the Electronic Benefit Transfer program, including customer service and administration of the so-called EBT card.
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Florida isn't the only state to use JPMorgan to handle its food stamp benefits administration; Spann said JPMorgan uses a Tampa-based center to run food stamp programs for a total of 28 states.
JPMorgan didn't immediately return an e-mail seeking comment about the call centers.
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The debate over outsourcing state food stamp services simmered in the Florida Legislature in 2004, too. That's when lawmakers called for scrutiny of contracts that hire foreign firms after it was revealed that the Department of Children and Families hired Citicorp Electronic Financial Services at a cost of $14 million a year to replace paper food stamps with the electronic benefit cards.
As part of the contract, Citicorp outsourced some calls to India.
In 2004, JPMorgan bought Citicorp Electronic Financial Services and took over the contract.
That year, as some lawmakers criticized the deal, then-Gov. Jeb Bush defended it in a letter to a state senator saying that banning contractors with foreign workers would be an "expensive exercise in futility."
"Taken to its logical conclusion, (banning contractors) would require the state to remove the Dell computer from your desk - and the desk of most members of the Florida Senate - because Dell has manufacturing facilities in Brazil, Malaysia and China," Bush wrote.
:crazy:
“And if we are, we can embed in society a sense of caring that makes government less necessary. There would be
no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these buildings around us empty of workers; silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill.” ----
Jeb Bush, January 2003, second inaugural address