AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: By Katherine Gregg, Providence Journal (RI), Tuesday, February 5, 2008

After a months-long inquiry last winter, the Senate Government Operations Committee yesterday issued a report slamming the Carcieri administration for giving a state staffing contract worth up to $11 million annually to a fledgling company under terms -- offered no other potential bidders -- that amounted to an "interest-free loan" from the state.

..... Among the key findings: The executive branch "inhibited" the Senate inquiry, "violated the spirit of the Access to Public Records Act" by withholding requested documents; and undermined the basic tenets of competitive bidding by offering to front the money to make each biweekly payroll to the newly incorporated Smart Staffing Services Inc., without giving the same opportunity to any other company.

Posted by Info Center at 1:40 PM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Permalink
Tags: Rhode Island

Source: Penny Gurstein and Stuart Murray, with Anisha Datta and Marika Albert, Canadian Centre for Policy Initiatives, October 2007

This report examines two cases of alternative service delivery (ASD) to assess the impact on customer service and the quality of working life for the outsourced workers in BC. Our findings suggest that, contrary to the government's claim that "this is alternative service delivery, not privatization," ASD is a form of privatization. ASD allows partnerships to form between the government and companies that specialize in outsourcing, changing the culture and delivery of public services.

This paper looks at how outsourcing has impacted government services and affected the economic security of the workers involved by focusing on two case studies:

• Outsourcing of "back office" work at BC Hydro to Accenture, including customer services, IT services, human resources, financial systems, purchasing, and buildings services; and

• Outsourcing of administration of the Medical Services Plan and PharmaCare to Maximus.

In both cases, work previously done by public sector employees is now administered by a multinational for-profit corporation.

Posted by Info Center at 4:26 PM in Custodial | Human Resources | Information Technology | Maintenance | Purchasing | Permalink

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat, Feb 22, 2007

Gov. Charlie Crist ordered a top-to-bottom review of privatization in state government Wednesday - starting with the troubled ''People First'' contract with Convergys for online personnel services.

''The review will serve as a starting point for evaluating how to reap the most value from the system, whether privatization has merit - if it does, we should use it, if it doesn't, we should not,'' Crist said at a news conference with Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

Posted by Info Center at 11:09 AM in Audits/Reporting | Human Resources | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), January 19, 2007

A special investigation of Florida state employee personnel data that a computer subcontractor shipped to India found ''significant discrepancies'' in security Thursday, but no evidence that personal information has leaked out of the People First system. Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South called ex-Gov. Jeb Bush's most ambitious privatization project ''an ugly pig'' that she will have to make the most of, since there is no prospect of returning state personnel services back to government. ….. South conceded, though, that subcontractors in India had such lax hiring practices and security standards, it is all but impossible to know if someone nabbed for identity theft once worked for one of those firms. ''Security protocols of the companies that this was outsourced to are dismal,'' she said in an interview

Posted by Info Center at 1:23 PM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Permalink

Source: Indiana University news release, Jan. 23, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A study of nearly 500 city and county governments demonstrates that private sector contracting results in lower full-time public employment and higher numbers of part-time government workers. The study was led by Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs Professor Sergio Fernandez, with co-authors Craig Smith and Jeffrey Wenger of the University of Georgia, and was published this month in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Posted by Info Center at 1:19 PM in Human Resources | Permalink

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), December 11, 2006

Three years into Gov. Jeb Bush's massive privatization of state personnel services and computerization of state purchasing, a new audit says the state still can't document whether the projects are saving taxpayers' money.
The Department of Management Services, in response to the preliminary audit findings of Auditor General Bill Monroe, said it does not have authority to delve into every state agency and find out how much they are saving by using the "People First" personnel service and MyFloridaMarketPlace purchasing system. That would take legislative authorization, DMS said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:04 AM in Human Resources | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), October 27, 2006

Backed by two women whose secret ''whistleblower'' lawsuit exposed the transfer of state employee personnel data to a computer processing company in India, the Democratic nominee for attorney general said Thursday that privatization of state personnel services has posed ''a clear and present danger'' of identity theft.

State Sen. Walter ''Skip'' Campbell said terrorists might even find use for personal information contained in more than 100,000 files that were indexed by a Denver company, GDXData, in the ''People First'' personnel system.

..... Newcomer said the lawsuit against GDXData is ''in the final investigative part'' determining to expand the case to include Convergys.

Posted by Info Center at 3:46 PM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Offshore | Permalink

Source: BY MICHAEL ROTHFELD, Newsday (NY), July 5, 2006

Nassau officials are investigating an accusation that a consultant hired to assist the county on a multimillion-dollar technology project has an inappropriate financial and business relationship with one of the bidders selected as a finalist to win a contract. County officials said the relationship between Accenture, a large global consulting company, and Workbrain, a software provider, was raised in May by Comptroller Howard Weitzman, whose office received a tip.

..... Peter Soh, a spokesman for Accenture, said its financial interest in Workbrain is negligible.

..... The county hired Accenture for $600,000 in May 2005 to help it purchase a computerized human resources management system.

Posted by Info Center at 10:05 AM in Human Resources | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Rob Thormeyer, Government Computer News (FL), 4/24/06

While Florida’s contract with Convergys Corp. of Cincinnati to consolidate and process human resource services for 32 state agencies has produced substantial benefits, it also serves as a stark example of what can go wrong when a government agency outsources certain functions to the private sector. Even though the partnership has resulted in some success and saved Florida at least $60 million, the state, Convergys and one of its subcontractors are embroiled in a lawsuit and on watch for potential security breaches.

Posted by Info Center at 10:52 AM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: BY MARC CAPUTO, Miami Herald (FL), Tue, Apr. 25, 2006

Payroll problems. Paperwork and computer foul-ups. Questionable promises of saving taxpayers money. According to a new legislative audit, the controversial $350 million contract farming out the state's massive human-resources responsibilities to the Convergys company is still rife with troubles. In some cases, the audit says, state agencies have had to spend more staff time and tax money to make the system work, even though the so-called ''People First'' contract was supposed to streamline, centralize and computerize the state's personnel system. …… None of it comes as a surprise to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union long predicted that taxpayers would see little savings and that state workers would get more headaches from the contract.

Posted by Info Center at 11:39 AM in Audits/Reporting | Horror Stories | Human Resources | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: BY MARC CAPUTO, Miami Herald (FL), Tue, Apr. 11, 2006

Florida's attorney general decided Monday to prosecute a false-claims case against the global firm Convergys, accused by a whistle-blower of fraudulently claiming it had security systems to protect the identities of state workers after it won Florida's massive human-resources management contract. Attorney General Charlie Crist's decision to pursue the case follows years of troubles tied to Convergys' $350 million contract -- the largest privatization effort in the state, called ''People First!'' -- to computerize and centralize Florida's human-resources system since 2002.

Posted by Info Center at 2:06 PM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), Jan 18, 2006

Lawyers for state employees urged Attorney General Charlie Crist's office Tuesday to make Convergys warn tens of thousands of state workers that their confidential personnel data - including Social Security and bank-routing numbers - may have been illegally sent to computer companies in India, China and Barbados. "When you close the barn door after the horse has escaped, that horse is personally identifiable data for thousands of state employees and their families," said Alma Gonzalez, special counsel for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We've got to catch that horse." .... People First is Gov. Jeb Bush's biggest privatization project - a $350 million, nine-year contract for Convergys to provide online personnel services. The system has been haunted by big and small glitches for three years, but the Department of Management Services has recently said it is running much better.

Posted by Info Center at 10:33 AM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Permalink

Source: By POLLY ROSS HUGHES, Houston Chronicle (TX), Jan. 18, 2006, 12:34AM

AUSTIN - Health department staffers discovered overdrafts on their personal checking accounts last fall when a private payroll contractor missed deposit deadlines for 80 workers, according to a highly critical state audit released Tuesday. Other state workers reported that they didn't get paid on time or they didn't get paid correctly, including for overtime. But when the Texas Health and Human Services Commission stepped in to fix problems under a contract with the global billing services firm, Convergys Corp., new obstacles arose.

Posted by Info Center at 10:31 AM in Horror Stories | Human Resources | Permalink