LePage wastes more taxpayer dollars on no-bid Alexander contract

Administration pays another $193,360 to failed contractor

AUGUSTA —  Governor Paul LePage has wasted nearly $200,000 additional funds to pay for the controversial no-bid Alexander Group contract.

On Feb. 7, the administration made a payment of $193,360, bringing total taxpayer dollars spent on the failed contract to $378,000 total, according to payment records from the non-partisan Legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Program Review.   The contract is expected to cost taxpayers $1 million, if it continues.

Lawmakers have submitted a bill, “An Act to Cancel the No-Bid Alexander Group Contract to Produce Savings in Fiscal Year 2014,” in order to prevent further waste of taxpayer dollars.

“It amazes me that the state continues to pay the Alexander Group when there is no new product,” said bill sponsor Rep. Richard Farnsworth of Portland, the House Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee.  “It seems to me that standard business practice is that you pay when you receive either goods or services.  At this point we have received only flawed goods and only a small portion of those goods at that.”

The Alexander Group is contracted to produce two more additional reports. However, the Governor has not shared any new reports from the consultant with the public.

Farnsworth added, “I can think of two reasons why the Governor has not released any new deliverables in the contract.  One is that there are none and two is that the quality of the first report was such that any follow-up is equally as flawed and may prove to be an additional embarrassment to the administration.”

The Alexander Group was hired by Governor LePage to study the state’s safety net programs and Medicaid expansion. The first report from the consulting firm, was a month late, contained serious flaws, and a $575 million accounting error. The firm’s director, Gary Alexander, served as the director of Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare, where his mismanagement and failed policies cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $7 million and resulted in 89,000 children losing health care.

“Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on a failed consultant whose work is flawed, the administration should focus its efforts on helping struggling families who are trying to get back on their feet,” said Senator Margaret Craven of Lewiston, the Senate Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, who is co-sponsoring the measure to cancel the contract. “We are paying a significant amount of money to Mr. Alexander. He should deliver. And if he doesn’t, then the administration should hold him accountable.”

The administration is paying for the million dollar contract with federal and state dollars designated to help struggling families who are forced to turn to the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Governor LePage is a self-described “turnaround specialist” from the private sector, but his administration has been plagued by mismanagement that has hurt Maine people and the state’s economy.

In recent months, the LePage administration lost $20 million in federal funding for Riverview Psychiatric Center by ignoring federal law, squandered $28 million on a “lame duck” contractor for MaineCare transportation services, and is currently being subpoenaed by the Legislature for document shredding at the Maine Centers for Disease Control around millions of dollars on grants for the Fund for Healthy Maine. Despite the controversy, Governor LePage has not publicly commented on any of these issues.

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