Now, thanks in large part to top-flight investigative reporting by the Chronicle's Brian Rosenthal and reporters at the Austin American-Statesman, lawmakers, the state auditor, federal investigators and the governor are among those paying attention. With a new governor in office and legislators just now getting down to serious business in Austin, it's an opportune time for state officials to clean up, open up and recommit themselves to fiscal responsibility and public accountability.
HHSC awarded the no-bid contract to 21CT by using a process intended for smaller purchases. It's not exactly clear why, but for now we'll give the company and its CEO the benefit of the doubt.
Founded in 1999 to run technology projects for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, 21CT seemed to see an opportunity and took it, although it's still not clear exactly how the company's technology and expertise helped HHSC uncover some $200 million in Medicare fraud, as the company claims. It also looks bad that 21CT was making generous political contributions shortly before the lucrative contract extension, now canceled, was scheduled for approval. In a recent meeting with the Chronicle editorial board, CEO Irene Williams termed the timing coincidental.
The HHSC executive who allegedly steered the deal to 21CT, former state Rep. Jack Stick, has lost his job, as have former Inspector General Doug Wilson and Stick's wife, who was HHSC Commissioner Kyle Janek's chief counsel. Janek's deputy chief of staff also resigned in the wake of reports the commission had paid his tuition for a master's degree in business in one lump sum, a violation of state policy.
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, has called for Janek's resignation. The commissioner insists he wasn't aware of the contracting irregularities, which is troubling but not necessarily a reason at this time for him to resign. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will make personnel decisions after he sees the findings of his so-called strike force reviewing the work of the agency.
Although Janek remains under a cloud, it's more important at the moment for him and his counterparts throughout state government to commit themselves to greater transparency.
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, has submitted a request to the health agency's open records coordinator asking for emails, calendars and other correspondence between HHSC and 21CT. The health agency, claiming the records are exempt from public disclosure because they're part of an ongoing investigation, has strenuously resisted requests for public records. That resistance needs to give way to the Texas public's right to know. 21CT also needs to be more forthcoming.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, filed a bill last week that would require public disclosure of no-bid contracts. Top officials also would have to approve contracts of $1 million or more. Nelson's bill is laudable, but as Abbott insisted last week, there's no need to wait. He ordered state agency heads to enact the reforms immediately.
The 21CT contract may be more typical than most Texans realized. State Auditor John Keel has found serious conflicts of interest and oversight problems in another deal involving HHSC, this one a multimillion-dollar contract with AT&T. Also, the Chronicle has reported recently on an investigation by Travis County's Public Integrity Unit into a no-bid contract during the Perry administration that involved the Department of Public Safety. We might know more about that particular contract had Rick Perry not vetoed funding for the Public Integrity Unit, thereby halting the investigation.
We're talking about taxpayer money, after all; Texas taxpayers deserve to know how it's being spent. They deserve a chance to see for themselves whether favoritism, fraud and other shenanigans are an integral part of doing government business in the Lone Star State.
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