A big mess in public aid
Source: Guillermo X. Garcia, Express-News (TX), Web Posted: 12/21/2006 12:02 AM CST
Since mid-2005, investigators at the state Health and Human Services Commission have been unable to determine the level of fraud in a pilot program that officials have touted as the future of entitlements in Texas.
The findings of a state audit released last month potentially put in jeopardy millions of dollars the federal government sends to Texas as its part of public assistance programs in Hays and Travis counties.
Those counties were chosen by HHSC to test a complex system for processing the applications of needy people before rolling it out statewide. The state auditor's report comes almost a year after problems at the commission emerged in its move to privatize social services, an effort Gov. Rick Perry has endorsed.