State Auditor Doug Hoffer is sharpening up his pencil to review transportation, corrections, and state cell phone contracts, he announced early Wednesday, listing details about his office’s priorities. Hoffer, a Democrat and Progressive, was sworn in to his new job Jan. 10.
Several of the contracts Hoffer is targeting involve large amounts of state dollars. Hoffer said he will audit the Correct Care Solutions contract at the Corrections Department, a personal services contract under which a private firm provides health care for inmates.
The point of the performance audit is to see if there’s effective oversight of the firm’s performance; the contract is valued at $53 million over three years.
Hoffer said the previous firm which handled the contract, Prison Health Services, had problems, with an inmate dying in August 2009 after medication was withheld.
He doesn’t have any evidence of problems with this particular program or contract now, but wants to ensure there are “enough internal controls in place.”
Corrections Department representatives couldn’t be reached for comment. Commissioner Andy Pallito is away this week, and health services director Dr. Delores Burroughs-Biron didn’t return an immediate request for comment.
The state’s massive Agency of Transportation, the single largest agency by employees, will also undergo some scrutiny. Hoffer will audit two large contracts there, though which two has yet to be determined.
House Transportation chair Pat Brennan, R-Colchester, said he didn’t think agency projects there were prone to waste, error or abuse.
“I think projects at AOT are vetted really well,” said Brennan. “They go through, sometimes, like a 10-to-12-year process for engineering and construction and design and so forth. I think things are all above-board over there.”
Brennan said his committee hadn’t encountered problems with transportation contracts in the past.
Hoffer also plans eventually to look at the state’s “last mile” telecom project, designed to deliver broadband and cell phone service to the most remote areas of the state, and information technology elements in health care reform, which together are items that tally over $200 million in state and federal funds.
In a slightly more quirky twist, Hoffer will assess whether state-issued cell phones are underused, and whether the state could reduce its cell phone bills. Cell phone spending cost about $2 million in fiscal year 2012, with the state’s Verizon, Sprint and AT&T contracts managed by the Department of Buildings and General Services.
Hoffer will also review the administration’s workers’ compensation program, where claims came to $7.3 million in fiscal 2012.
He expects that results from the workers’ compensation and cell phone audits could realistically be available in three months, though the transportation and corrections audits will take substantially longer.
Hoffer defeated longtime Vermont Sen. Vince Illuzzi, a well-known Northeast Kingdom Republican, in the Nov. 6 election. He replaces Tom Salmon, who did not seek re-election.
