MPBN: State Probe: Maine CDC Workers Ordered to Destroy Documents
By Mal Leary
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The Legislature’s Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability – or OPEGA – says that some staff at the Maine Center for Disease Control were ordered by their supervisors to destroy documents related to the healthy communities’ coalition state funding last spring. As Mal Leary reports, members of the Government Oversight Committee are upset at the outcome.
Committee members were incredulous as OPEGA Director Beth Ashcroft reported the findings of a probe that had been requested after questions were raised about the formula used to distribute money to Health Maine Partnership organizations.
Some of the groups, which work to improve public health, saw dramatic shifts in their expected funding. Ashcroft says the methodology used by the Maine CDC to determine healthy coalition funding was flawed, poorly documented, and unorganized.
“We also found there were multiple weaknesses in Maine CDC’s scoring methodology that undermine the credibility of the process and presented an opportunity to manipulate outcomes.”
The lack of documentation of the process that handed out millions of dollars in grant funds upset several members of the panel. Sen. Emily Cain, a Democrat from Orono, co-chairs the committee.
“I am really stuck on why they didn’t know they were supposed to keep documents. I guess to me that’s sort what we do all over the place. We see that happen, we do it for ourselves. We are – I am just really struck by that.”
The report indicated that documents related to the contracting process are now missing, even though OPEGA staff found references to their existence. That led Republican Sen. David Burns of Whiting to ask whether the panel should use its subpoena powers to try to get more information under oath.
“Would it be appropriate to issue a subpoena or wouldn’t that make any difference?…Well, I think in this case, the department says it doesn’t have it.”
Sen. Margaret Craven, a Democrat from Lewiston, says she is upset that even though the report indicates there was wrongdoing in the contract award process, it appears unlikely that anyone will be held accountable for the conduct.
“I can barely contain my frustration, I can barely contain – mainly because even when there is misconduct or whatever discovered, there just doesn’t seem to be any recourse for having people be accountable.”
Sharon Leahy-Lind, the former director of the Division of Local Public Health at Maine CDC, the woman who blew the whistle on the questionable contracting procedure, issued a statement saying she is grateful for the study and stating that “transparency and a fair, justifiable process for allocating scarce public dollars are paramount to good governance.”
The Government Oversight Committee will seek public comment at its meeting next month. The panel has also requested information from other state agencies about the request for proposal process, and how they document the methodology used to award contracts.