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Ignoring the warning signs

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Illinois

Illinois is outsourcing part of its Medicaid program to a company that is under a federal grand jury investigation in Louisiana, was disqualified from bidding in Arkansas, was ushered out of Maine and has been the subject of complaints in Utah.

The black marks against the company, including its firing in Louisiana in March, haven’t deterred Illinois officials, who say they are confident of their recently announced plan to use the company’s services through a partnership with Michigan.

Client Network Services Inc., an information technology company based in Gaithersburg, Md., will help Illinois set up an estimated $85 million system to handle processing and other administrative tasks for the state’s Medicaid program, the state-federal health program that covers about 2.8 million people.

Kinda reminds me of this story…

A testy Mayor Rahm Emanuel today promised to bring in outside help to determine whether indicted ex-Comptroller Amer Ahmad did anything improper here, and he defended his decision to hire Mr. Ahmad in the first place.

In his first comments since news broke that Mr. Ahmad allegedly was at the center of a shakedown scheme in his former post with the Ohio state treasurer’s office, Mr. Emanuel promised a “thorough, comprehensive and complete” review of Mr. Ahmad’s performance here — including as a voting member of all four of Chicago’s huge employee pension funds.

Though the probe will be led jointly by Corporation Counsel Steve Patton and Inspector General Joe Ferguson, “We’re going to ask an independent third party to (actually) do the review,” Mr. Emanuel said. “They have resources we don’t have.”

State officials say they’ve checked into Client Network Services and aren’t worried. Emanuel knew about clear warning signs in Ahmad’s recent past and hired him anyway after he was “vetted.”

* Bill Daley responds to the Medicaid story…

In the wake of today’s Chicago Tribune story detailing Governor Quinn’s outsourcing an $85 million no-bid Medicaid administration contract to a company under federal grand jury investigation, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Daley called for the Governor to release all correspondence related to hiring the embattled firm.

“I am calling on Governor Quinn to release all correspondence and emails between his administration, the State of Michigan, this firm and their lobbyists regarding awarding a no-bid contract to a company under federal grand jury investigation. The State Inspector General should launch an immediate investigation into whether this inside deal was improperly awarded,” said Daley.

Client Network Services Inc. (CNSI) was awarded the no-bid contract under an unusual partnership with the State of Michigan even after Quinn administration officials admitted that they knew the firm was under federal investigation and had been fired, replaced or banned from bidding on similar projects in Louisiana, Arkansas and Maine.

“When it comes to giving this no bid contract to a company that is both under federal investigation and had its contract cancelled by other states, we need to know who spoke to whom about this agreement and who lobbied whom, especially because of the cloud of suspicion this company is under in other parts of the country,” added Daley.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal fired CNSI in March after his state received a subpoena from a federal investigation into improper and potentially illegal communications between CNSI and state officials. In addition to questionable practices in awarding the contract, CSNI underbid competitors only to come back and blindside Louisiana with a request for an additional $40 million in fees.

In July, Arkansas banned CNSI from bidding on their Medicaid program after they received unfavorable reviews from others states where CNSI does business. This is after CNSI’s debacle in Maine forced the state into $500 million in temporary payments resulting from CNSI’s system crashing in 2005. CNSI’s contract in Utah is also in question after getting bad reviews from the state.

“We need to know why a company with a string of failures in other states which is also under investigation by the federal government would be given a no-bid contract by Governor Quinn’s administration,” concluded Daley.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:05 pm

Comments

Wow…

No bid no less….

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:09 pm
Hmm some background into who runs this company and what kind of Illinois connections they have would be interesting.
Used to be Quinn was honest but incompetent seems like everyday we are seeing his admin isn’t honest.

Comment by Fed up Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:14 pm
“We need to know why a company with a string of failures in other states which is also under investigation by the federal government would be given a no-bid contract by Governor Quinn’s administration,” concluded Daley.

We need to know why a family with a string of policy failures which is also under investigation for capital crimes would be given a single vote by an Illinois citizen.

Comment by anonxx Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:18 pm
Also wonder if anyone asked how much of the work would be done outside the US?

http://www.cns-inc.com/about/globaldeliverymodel.cfm

http://www.cns-inc.com/news/newsDetail.cfm?id=196&type=Press%20Release

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:25 pm
Adam Andrzejewski was running this story in like June. Trib article is little more than a copy-paste of a few of his statewide emails.

;)

Comment by Just sayin' Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:28 pm
Why shouldn’t Il hire a firm that has a history of failure, to do other wise would be out of character for our wonderful state.

Comment by independent Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:38 pm
CNSI claims it will decrease Medicaid operational costs by 40% over 5 years. That’s a bold statement after being told they were fired/banned from similar work in Louisiana, Arkansas and Maine. This should go well.

Comment by zatoichi Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:47 pm
No Bid. That pretty much tells the tale for anybody who knows anything about Illinois politics, doesn’t it.

Comment by Responsa Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:48 pm
OneMan,

More than just no bid; I could live with that because someone has to be accountable for sole source. Under the procurement rules I’ve familar with (last rewrite about 7 years ago), any agency director can do a sole source procurement AS LONG AS he is will to sign a statement that it is “in the best interest of the State”. That loophole has been buried in the procurement rules for at least 35 years I know of, probably longer. All the State RFP / RFQ boilerplate I ever worked with had that loophole buried in the fine print at the back that nobody ever reads.

But this deal wasn’t that up front. If I remember the original newspaper story correctly, Illinois signed an agreement to do a joint deal with Michigan in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to hide an end run around the procurement process.

Could this be the deal that finally bites Quinn or one of his insiders?

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:48 pm
@RNUG:

All sole source contracts are put out there and objections may be filed with the Procurement Policy Board. If nobody objects the contract moves forward. Additionally, each agency is under a procurement officer from the Ethics Commission that must sign off on all contracts.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:50 pm
Big promises and big risks. We’ll see how this ends up.

Comment by Norseman Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 1:58 pm
“We need to know why a company with a string of failures in other states which is also under investigation by the federal government would be given a no-bid contract by Governor Quinn’s administration,” concluded Daley.

Yes. Even if people generally know, but are not admitting it, it would be nice for the public to hear and understand why business is being conducted this way–and probably due to the reasons why, will continue to be conducted this way. Though I’m fairly certain that no one–even Daley, will have the courage to shine a light on it.

Actions have consequences as many have learned when it comes to some of these “companies” that they’ve hired.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 2:09 pm
Sounds like MSI and red light cameras to us
we need good old dependsble work forcers to mishandle this stuff

Comment by circular firing squad Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 2:21 pm
A company with a stringe of failures?
Sounds like a perfect fit to me. So illinoisey.

Comment by Tequila Mockingbird Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 2:26 pm
I apologize. I should have read before I spoke. I see it was an intergovernmental agreement, but according to reports they worked with the state’s Chief Procurement Officer at the Ethics Commission to ensure they followed the law. I’m not defending the selection but it doesn’t appear they did anything wrong as far as following proper procedure.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 2:30 pm
Will be interesting to see who knew who and what person(s) got their palm greased in this one.

Comment by Empty Suit Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 2:34 pm
“We need to know why a family with a string of policy failures which is also under investigation for capital crimes would be given a single vote by an Illinois citizen.”

Because he’s not Pat Quinn, and the Dem powers that be haven’t seen fit to give us a viable (or ANY) third option.

Just a theory. From someone who will vote for neither of ‘em.

Comment by Chris Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 2:48 pm
This time will be different.

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 3:01 pm
First Maximus, now this, the next will be Deloitte with its 148 million dollar contract. The system is called Integrated Eligibility System (IES).

These firms are all the same, bid low, load on the extensions for millions of dollars, do crappy work, leave with lots of money in their pockets.

Oh have you checked out their political donations? It’s obscene.

Comment by Rufus Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 3:20 pm
=…leave with lots of money in their pockets…..=

And data.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 3:32 pm
Can anyone remember, MSI?

Comment by Louis Howe Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 3:48 pm
The more I think about it, the more I think that Rahm and Pat and Mike and John are just a bunch of hillbilly good old boys disguised as city slickers thinking they can always put one over on the rest of us yokels. The dishonesty and the lack of will of anyone in a position of authority to call them on it is disheartening at the least. Sometimes I think this blog’s favorite columnist has it right when he says we are all a bunch of chumbalones for continuing to take it.

Comment by captaingeorge Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 4:08 pm
==
Could this be the deal that finally bites Quinn or one of his insiders?==

Does CNSI have an affiliate that makes purple ties? That could be the connection!

Comment by Anon. Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 4:23 pm
Quinn, Madigan, Cullerton, what do we expect to get. We are lead by incompetents. We have cornered the market with this type leadership.

The world must know they have easy pickin’s in Illinois.
Without this blog and a few good newspapers we would really be lost.
I couldn’t agree more with captaingeorge.

Comment by mokenavince Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 4:29 pm
Oh Amer. Rahm really messed up BAD with that one. He had to go to Ohio to recruit a finance guy? What, there are no finance people left in Chicago???

It was weird from the start. Now I wonder if anyone from Ohio is left there after Amer departure. Ignoring the warning signs indeed.

Comment by bureaucratic party Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 5:50 pm
Ex- IDOC Director Donnie Snyder went to prison because he took bribes from the IDOC Medical vendor Wexford. Wexford now does more business in IDOC than it ever has, so why does this surprise anyone in Illinois?

Comment by Rob Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 7:38 pm
Incredible. I hope someone keeps a spotlight on their performance. Hopefully the Feds will do that for Illinois.

Comment by Just a citizen Wednesday, Aug 21, 13 @ 7:54 pm
Simon, Bruce are the lobbyists for this company

Comment by Cassidy Thursday, Aug 22, 13 @ 6:38 am
Rob…One of the Wexford differences is that they win the IDOC contract in competitive bidding.

Comment by Louis Howe Thursday, Aug 22, 13 @ 7:06 am