Report: Officials altered records in probe
Source: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (TX), Thu, Dec. 21, 2006
Officials changed documents, pressured witnesses and delayed an inquiry into whether the state health department inappropriately used lobbyists to push legislation last year, a state investigative report shows.
The report by the inspector general's office of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission said the delay gave potential targets of the investigation time to obscure the paper trail so investigators could not determine whether the Department of State Health Services did anything wrong, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
But the report concluded that three mental health advocacy groups improperly used state grant money to lobby for a bill that the health department favored. The bill, which failed, would have privatized state mental health services.