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Archive for the ‘Privatization’ Category

Morgan Keegan report on OGB’s fate is at DOA but don’t expect its release; it’s ‘part of the deliberative process’

Posted in Governor's Office, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, Transparency on February 8, 2012| 1 Comment »

The long-awaited report by Morgan Keegan on the proposed fate of the Louisiana Office of Group Benefits (OGB) has been turned over to the Division of Administration, LouisianaVoice has learned.

LouisianaVoice has made a formal request under the Louisiana Public Records Laws for a copy of the Morgan Keegan report. That request was directed on Wednesday to Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater.

But don’t expect the report to be released willingly. Rainwater, in all probablity will fall back on the erroneous claim that, like the notorious Chaffe & Associates report of last year, it is exempt from the public records law “as part of the deliberative process.” Even that claim was made only after Rainwater’s first attempting to deny the existence of the Chaffe report. To say this administration is willing to bend the rules in order to protect its backside is being charitable.

The Morgan Keegan report is said to have included several options, two of which included the outright sale of OGB or turning the administration of the preferred provider organization (PPO) over to a third party administrator (TPA)—a move that would be accompanied by a massive layoff of OGB employees who presently process claims by state employees, retirees and dependents.

An earlier report, and the number cited by Rainwater last spring in testimony before the Louisiana Legislature, said that 149 OGB employees would be laid off.

That number now sits at 177.

The word of the layoffs comes only days after word of Jindal’s hiring of several former legislators and relatives of former chief of staff Timmy Teepell to high-level positions in his administration.

It was earlier reported by LouisianaVoice that the executive budget to be delivered to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget on Thursday would include a line item to sell OGB outright for $189 million but the Jindal administration later backed off on that option and chose the third party administrator instead.

Jindal was reported to have been only lukewarm to either proposal because, in his words, the state would still be “in the insurance business.”

Sources close to the administration said that Jindal has added yet another option: to do nothing in case of another widespread protest as was experienced when the administration first floated the idea of privatization the agency that has accrued a $500 million surplus while administering health care claims for state employees, retirees and dependents.

Rainwater fired former OGB director Tommy Teague last April after Teague did not fall in line quickly enough over the proposal to sell the agency. Afterwards, a firestorm of protests erupted across the state from state employees and retirees that resulted in Rainwater’s vacillating between selling OGB or contracting with a TPA.

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Jindal economic strategy: consultant shows up for $150,000, privatizes a viable state agency and collects $750,000 bonus

Posted in Budget, Ethics, Governor's Office, Health Care, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, Transparency on February 2, 2012| 1 Comment »

Here’s a can’t-miss formula for success that Gov. Bobby Jindal is asking us to accept with no questions asked:

First, hire a consultant who was hit with a major fine for misleading clients—we’ll call him Shady—to find employment for a second consultant—we’ll call him Sneaky—who was also fined for misrepresentation.

Then a third party enters the picture to contract with Sneaky to broker the sale of a major asset even as Shady continues to negotiate for full time employment for Sneaky.

Set the contract at $150,000 just for Sneaky to show up to make a determination of the asset’s financial worth.

Then, if the asset sells, well, let’s give Sneaky a nice fat bonus of say, $750,000 for providing “unbiased advice” on the bidding process and contract negotiations.

We will repeat that last part: Sneaky is expected to give “unbiased advice” in its efforts to collect an additional $750,000.

Remember, too, that Sneaky has already been fined $210 million for misrepresenting critical information “exactly when investors needed it most.”

That is precisely the scenario that currently exists with the contract between Morgan Keegan brokerage and the Louisiana Division of Administration regarding the proposed sale of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) and its $500 million surplus.

After the state’s attempt to engage Goldman Sachs at a cost of $6 million to market OGB to private investors—you may remember that Goldman Sachs helped write the request for proposals (RFP) for the OGB sale and then submitted the only proposal—fell through over demands by Goldman Sachs that it be indemnified from any potential litigation.

A new RFP was then issued and Morgan Keegan was the low bidder last July.

But Morgan Keegan had recently agreed to pay $210 million to settle allegations that it had fraudulently marketed mutual funds filled with subprime mortgages and artificially inflated the funds’ prices.

So Regions Financial Corp., Morgan Keegan’s parent company, decided to divest itself of the troublesome brokerage firm.

So, who did Regions retain to explore “strategic alternatives” for Morgan Keegan?

None other than Goldman Sachs which, less than an year earlier, was fined $587 million over claims that it had misled investors in collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages.

Morgan Keegan eventually sold, but at a price that was less than the value it had recorded on its financial books.

Now comes word that if Morgan Keegan, which is being paid $150,000 to determine the financial value of OGB, will rake in a bonus of up to $750,000 more if OGB is subsequently privatized.

Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater promised that Morgan Keegan, which contributed $1,000 to Jindal’s 2007 election campaign, will provide “unbiased advice” in its efforts to help market OGB.

In what is becoming an all-too-familiar refrain, OGB board Chairman James H. Lee attempted to obtain a copy of the Morgan Keegan contract from the administration in November but was told it was not finalized.

The contract, however, was signed by Morgan Keegan’s managing director on Oct. 31 and an OGB representative on Nov. 2.

Something’s a little rotten here. It’s a lot like efforts to obtain the infamous Chaffe & Associates report last year. Jindal hired Chaffe to make a quickie determination of OGB’s book value but then Rainwater refused to make copies of the report available to legislators and the media.

When a copy of the report was finally “leaked,” it had dates that were inconsistent with receipt dates provided LouisianaVoice by Rainwater and the contract was not date-stamped as are all documents received by the Division of Administration (DOA).

Lee said he has been trying since August to obtain a quorum of the OGB board of directors but at least one of the governor’s three appointed members is absent for each meeting. Normally, there are five members appointed by the governor, but two of the appointive positions are currently vacant.

“It is my opinion that they (the Jindal administration) have the full intention of selling off OGB as quietly as possible before anyone realizes what is going on,” Lee said. “Should this happen, the active and retired employees of the state will see reduced benefits and the taxpayers will see increased costs,” he added.

Former State Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City), a former member of the OGB board, said he is unclear as to why Jindal insists on privatizing a state agency that saves the state money. He opined that the governor may want to dismantle OGB and its $500 million surplus in order to more easily criticize President Barack Obama’s national health-care program.

“He needs to destroy it (OGB) for his personal ambitions,” Gautreaux said.

That should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched this governor.

His first agency to privatize was the Office of Risk Management (ORM). The state paid F.A. Richard & Associates (FARA) of Mandeville $68 million to take over ORM. In less than a year, the FARA contract was amended by $6.8 million. Two weeks later, the contract was transferred—without the prior written consent of the state, as required by the contract—to a second firm and months later it was transferred to a third firm, again without the legally required written consent.

ORM was the first of a succession of agencies that Jindal has either tried to privatized or announced intentions to do so. They include state prisons, the state’s Medicaid program, OGB, and education.

The one thing that Jindal has never once explained to the voters of Louisiana is this:

If things are so badly run in this state, if things are so screwed up, if state employees are so stupid and lazy and teachers so pitifully inept and impossible to fire “short of selling drugs in the workplace,” (Jindal’s words, by the way) how did we ever make it this far?

How is it that one day we woke up as a state and realized that only one man had been anointed with the answers to all our ills, just one man who could solve the problems of state retirement, prison costs, Medicaid administration, public education, higher education, employee health benefits, and state agency risk exposure?

How is it that one man is so incredibly blessed with such vision, such gifts of perception, insight, understanding and infinite wisdom? How indeed?

We will probably never know the source of all his wonderful attributes. After all, as the Shreveport Times recently observed, Jindal has spent four years “limiting or avoiding extended interviews about his programs with journalists outside Baton Rouge, not to mention fighting efforts to open his administration’s records to public view.”

Considering the fact that the Times has consistently carried the water for the Republican ideology, those critical words are especially surprising—and harsh. The paper further observed that Jindal made dozens of trips to northwest Louisiana but most of those were controlled settings, so access was limited. “Fortunate is the hometown journalist who can ask a follow-up question before a governor’s aide whisks away his boss,” the paper said.

Earlier this week, the Baton Rouge Advocate noted that the Zachary and West Feliciana Parish school systems, two of the better performing systems in the state, are facing financial disaster because of Jindal’s refusal to increase funding through the Minimum Foundation Program for public education. It’s no secret that public education is subordinate to his obsession with funding charter schools, vouchers and virtual schools.

Only weeks after it was announced last March that ORM would be privatized, an ORM employee was in a restaurant in downtown Baton Rouge around 4:30 p.m. when Jindal aides strode in and informed her that she would have to leave because Jindal had a fund raiser scheduled at the restaurant at 5 p.m.

“I paid for my food and my drink and I’m going to stay right here until I finish,” the defiant employee said.

She did, and on her way out, she met Jindal as he was entering the establishment. Jindal approached her with his hand extended and asked, “How are you today?”

“Not well at all,” was her curt reply. “You just privatized my agency and put some good people out of work.”

Jindal blinked and mumbled, “I’m sorry” before moving past her.

Sorry, Guv, we aren’t buying it. To be truly sorry, one must first be compassionate and one must be sincere. It also helps to have a little class.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Governor's Office, Notable Quotables, Prison, Privatization, Transparency on January 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

“The two largest prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut), are poised to strike, in what Judith Greene, director of Justice Strategies calls, ‘an unprecedented’ expansion of the use of private prisons that no other state has undertaken.”

–Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, a national resource center on privatization and responsible contracting.

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Jindal’s plan to privatize Louisiana prisons still on the table; Florida’s governor may be laying groundwork in that state

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Prison, Privatization on January 27, 2012| 5 Comments »

So far Gov. Bobby Jindal, flush from his re-election last fall, has chosen two pro-business groups to announce sweeping reform efforts for his second term, unveiling his education reform at the annual meeting of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and proposed state employee pension plan changes to the Baton Rouge Rotary Club.

Selecting friendly venues for major announcements seems to be the preferred method for Jindal who wisely eschewed teachers groups and state employee gatherings to unveil his agenda. Louisiana Public Service Commission (PCS) Chairman Foster Campbell observed that had he revealed his proposed pension program to state employees, “they’d have booed him out of the room.”

And while he has yet to address state corrections, you can be certain he has state prison privatization squarely in his crosshairs. All those private prison companies did not contribute to his election campaign just for the fun of it.

Only last Wednesday, the Florida Senate Budget Committee, at the urging of Jindal’s fellow Republican Gov. Rick Scott, passed a bill to privatize 29 South Florida prisons—to turn them over to for-profit companies that would be required to produce cost cuts of 7 percent below the cost of state-run facilities.

But there’s a more ominous undercurrent to that bill that gives the Florida governor far-reaching powers to expand privatization to other agencies. Under the latest proposals, an agency would not have to report its privatization of a program until after a contract is signed. The bill also will eliminate the legal requirement to perform a cost-benefit analysis before privatizing any governmental function.

Doing away with the cost-benefit analysis reveals in no uncertain terms just how little concern Scott and his allies have about real savings. Don’t for a minute think that Jindal is not in constant contact with Scott on that particular nuance. After all, Jindal did travel to Florida to campaign for Scott’s election. And don’t for one minute think that Jindal is concerned about savings or of the welfare of state employees. It’s all about money—campaign money.

Jindal’s second effort at privatization is a certainty but it is nevertheless worthwhile to take a look at the dollars and cents of privatizing prisons.

Of the 50 states, Louisiana sits alone at the top with the highest prison incarceration rate in the nation at 858 per 100,000. Mississippi is second at 749 per 100,000.

In absolute numbers, Louisiana ranked 11th in the nation in actual prison population in 2007 (37,341) even though the state was 25th in population. Those numbers likely have only increased in the past five years. From 1990 to 2004, Louisiana’s prison population nearly doubled, increasing by 98.6 percent, from 18,600 to 36,900, federal records show.

The U.S., with more than two million prisoners, ranks highest in the world, nearly half-a-million more than number-two China. The U.S. also has the highest per capita number of prisoners with 715 per 100,000. Russia is a distant second with 584 prisoners per 100,000 population.

So, if the U.S. has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world and Louisiana has the highest rate in the U.S. that gives Louisiana the highest rate of imprisonment in the world.

So, what does all this mean in the terms of costs to house, feed and care for all these prisoners? That, after all, would appear on the surface to be the consideration uppermost in Jindal’s mind: saving the state beaucoup money.

In August of 2011, the Vera Institute of Justice, with offices in Washington, D.C., New Orleans and New York City, conducted a survey to determine the total cost of prisons in fiscal year 2010. Thirty-nine of the 50 states responded to the survey which provided some rather interesting figures. That cost is computed on the basis of what the state spends over and above the amounts budgeted for prisons. The additional costs include, but are not limited to, pension liabilities, medical care, inmate education and training, capital construction, legal and administrative costs.

Louisiana had a per prisoner cost of $17,486 in 2010 ($47.91 per day), fourth lowest of the 39 responding states. By comparison, Kentucky’s annual cost per prisoner was $14,603 and Alabama’s was $17,285.

Louisiana’s annual cost per prisoner paled in comparison to several other states. Florida ($20,553), Georgia ($21,039), Texas ($21,390, Missouri ($22,350), Arkansas ($24,391), Arizona ($24,895), Ohio ($25,814), and North Carolina ($29,965) all had higher annual per-prisoner costs.

But five other states’ annual costs per prisoner really soared. Illinois had an annual per-prisoner cost of $38,268, followed by Pennsylvania ($42,339), California ($47,421), New Jersey ($54,865) and New York ($60,076), nearly three-and-one-half higher than Louisiana’s.

The one statistic that Jindal is almost certain to roll out when he makes his inevitable push to privatize Louisiana’s prisons will be the cost per taxpayer. So, let’s take a look at those numbers as well.

Of the 39 responding states, 21 did in fact have lower costs than Louisiana’s per-taxpayer cost of $698.40 per annum, putting the state almost squarely in the middle of the pack. In North Dakota, for example, the per-taxpayer cost was a paltry $58.10. Others, like Oklahoma ($453.40), Alabama ($462.50) and Missouri ($680.50) were closer to Louisiana’s figures.

But then there are states like Arizona ($1,003.60), Georgia ($1,129.90), North Carolina ($1,204.70), Michigan ($1,268), Ohio ($1,315.50), New Jersey ($1,416.70), Illinois ($1,743.20), Pennsylvania ($2,044.30), Florida ($2,082.50), Texas ($3,306.40), New York ($3,558.70), and California ($7,932.40).

Let those last few numbers sink in: Florida’s annual per-taxpayer cost of housing and caring for prisoners is three times Louisiana’s cost. The yearly per-taxpayer rate for Texas is 4.7 times Louisiana’s rate and New York’s rate is five times Louisiana’s per-taxpayer rate. And then there is California where the per-taxpayer rate of $7,932.40 per year is a whopping 11.3 times that of Louisiana.

So, just how will Jindal sell his economic plan for prisons when so many states have both higher per-prisoner and per-taxpayer costs associated with housing, feeding and caring for prisoners?

That should be the number-one question for anyone to ask of Jindal who by now is so caught up in his own brilliance as to think himself infallible. How do you propose to save money when the state’s costs are already a mere fraction of many other states? It’s a question that demands an answer.

The answer, of course, is for the private companies to cut costs by slashing salaries and benefits, reducing the number of guards and taking a page from the charter school playbook: take only the best of the crop (best being a relative term).

A betting man could make a few bucks by making a wager that sick prisoners requiring expensive medical care and violent prisoners requiring tighter security (read: more guards) will not be taken by the private operators. Those will be left to the state’s care. Bet on it.

Below are the rankings in terms of per-prisoner cost and per-taxpayer cost for the 39 responding states:

ANNUAL PER PRISONER COST (BY STATE)
Kentucky $14,603
Indiana $14,823
Alabama $17,285
Louisiana $17,486
Kansas $18,207
Oklahoma $18,467
Idaho $19,545
Florida $20,553
Nevada $20,656
Georgia $21,039
Texas $21,390
Missouri $22,350
Arkansas $24,391
Arizona $24,895
Virginia $25,129
Ohio $25,814
West Virginia $26,498
Michigan $28,117
Utah $29,349
North Carolina $29,965
Montana $30,227
Iowa $32,925
Delaware $32,967
New Hampshire $34,080
Nebraska $35,950
Wisconsin $37,994
Illinois $38,268
Maryland $38,383
North Dakota $39,271
Minnesota $41,364
Pennsylvania $42,339
California $47,421
Rhode Island $49,133
Vermont $49,502
Connecticut $50,262
Washington State $51,775
New Jersey $54,865
Maine $56,269
New York $60,076

ANNUAL PER TAXPAYER COST (BY STATE)

North Dakota $56.20
Montana $76.00
New Hampshire $80.30
Vermont $111.30
Maine $132.90
Idaho $144.70
Kansas $158.20
Nebraska $163.30
West Virginia $169.20
Rhode Island $172.10
Utah $186.00
Delaware $215.20
Iowa $276.00
Nevada $282.90
Kentucky $311.70
Arkansas $326.10
Minnesota $395.30
Oklahoma $453.40
Alabama $462.50
Indiana $569.50
Missouri $680.50
Louisiana $698.40
Virginia $748.60
Maryland $836.20
Washington State $838.40
Wisconsin $874.40
Connecticut $929.40
Arizona $1,003.60
Georgia $1,129.90
North Carolina $1,204.70
Michigan $1,268.00
Ohio $1,315.50
New Jersey $1,416.70
Illinois $1,743.20
Pennsylvania $2,055.30
Florida $2,082.50
Texas $3,306.40
New York $3,558.70
California $7,932.40

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Is the bloom fading from the rose that is Bobby Jindal? Perhaps so. Let’s take a look at a few recent developments

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Health Care, ORM, Office of Risk Management, Privatization on January 17, 2012| 2 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—Gov. Bobby Jindal’s façade of invulnerability appears to be, if not crumbling, then at least in dire need of some major touch-up work.

Barely past steamrolling an opponent who had only about $39 in campaign funds and who yet somehow still managed 17 percent of the vote, Jindal finds himself:

• at odds with the state’s attorney general;

• joined at the hip with a loser in the presidential primaries;

• linked to a firm with contracts in Louisiana that is under scrutiny for cost overruns on a contract with the State of Texas;

• seeing his Medicaid privatization program, being run by several campaign contributors, get off to a less than auspicious start.

All that without re-hashing the ongoing shell game of just who is administering his first privatization project—the Office of Risk Management—at any given time. ORM has been handed off to the third company in just over a year since initially being taken over by F.A. Richard and Associates (FARA).

Nor have we, or anyone else, for that matter, bothered to mention the undercurrent of resentment between Jindal and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne.

It’s a poorly-kept secret that Jindal wanted ally Billy Nungesser as the lieutenant governor so that Jindal could privatize the Office of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in order to get his hands on that agency’s $30 million in statutory dedications. Jindal, in fact, hosted a $5,000-a-pop fundraiser on Tuesday to help Nungesser pay off his $1 million campaign debt. It was one of the few fundraisers Jindal attended in-state.

Which brings up another bone of contention between Jindal and Dardenne: Jindal over the past two years has spent an extraordinary amount of time out of state—and continues to do so—attending fundraisers for himself, for other candidates, and to hawk his book.

Yet, not once has he extended the courtesy to Dardenne the second in line for the governor’s office should something happen to Jindal, of informing the lieutenant governor on those occasions when he was out of the state.

His endorsement of Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the Republican presidential nomination—along with the candidate—is in the tank. After a contentious round of debates, caucuses, primaries and millions of dollars spent by PACs by nearly all the GOP hopefuls, it appears that the nomination, barring a major misstep, is Mitt Romney’s to lose.

Speaking of Texas, the Texas General Land Office has placed tighter controls on Kansas City engineering firm HNTB which encountered cost overrun problems with its contract to manage federal grants to Texas communities hit by hurricanes Ike and Dolly.

Gary Hagood, deputy commissioner for financial management at the Texas General Land Office, last week testified before the Texas Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs that HNTB’s no-bid contract may have been improperly procured and that an amendment more than doubling the contract from its original $69 million to $144 million may also have been improper.

The land office assumed responsibility for the contract after the former agency in charge, the Department of Rural Affairs, was dissolved. If an audit determines that funds were improperly spent, the state could be required to repay millions of dollars to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

HNTB was also was the lead consultant for Perry’s proposed Trans-Texas toll road system. Since 2007, the firm was paid $112 million by the Texas Department of Transportation for various projects, including $38 million for the toll road project, which was scrapped in 2009.

Ray Sullivan, Perry’s former chief of staff who now works with his presidential campaign, is a former lobbyist for HNTB, which has made nearly $35,000 in political campaigns to Perry since 2007.

The company has at least three contracts totaling $4 million with the State of Louisiana and while it has made several political contributions under its corporate name—$10,000 to the Republican Party of Louisiana, $1,900 to Jindal, and $2,500 to Nungesser, among others—it appears to prefer making its contributions through corporate officers:

• Paul Yarossi, a director in HNTB’s New York corporate offices—$5,000 to Jindal in February of 2011;

• Michael McGaugh of Baton Rouge, a manager for a HNTB-ABMB joint venture—$2,500 to Jindal in June of 2007 and $5,000 in November of 2010;

• John Basilica of Baton Rouge, a manager for a HNTB-CPE joint venture—$2,500 to Jindal in February of 2011;

• Mary D. Hinkebein of Carmel, Indiana—$1,000 to Jindal in February of 2011. Mary Hinkebein is the wife of Keith Hinkebein, a director with HNTB Holdings, Ltd.

HNTB contracts with Louisiana include one for $750,000 with the Department of Natural Resources to provide geotechnical assistance for coastal restoration projects on an as-needed basis; $300,000 with the Department of Transportation and Development to serve as an expert witness “with specialized knowledge of professional engineering fields,” and $3 million with the Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration “to provide the means for engineering assistance for coastal restoration projects on an as-needed basis.”

The $3 million contract is a joint venture with CPE, Inc.

As if that were not enough, barely a month after being hailed as a “hallmark moment,” the first phase of the rollout of the state’s new “Bayou Health” privatized health care system for the state’s poor and uninsured has been plagued by delays, technical difficulties and unanswered questions.

On Dec. 12, Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) Secretary Bruce Greenstein said all five health plans contracted to manage care under the Bayou Health program were ready to begin operations in nine southeast Louisiana parishes. By mid-2012, he said, the plan would cover two-thirds of the state’s 1.2 million Medicaid recipients.

“This is a hallmark moment in our state’s journey toward improved health outcomes,” Greenstein said.

Instead, callers have complained of long wait times, incorrect information and technical difficulties in dealing with DHH and health-care providers have bombarded DHH with so many questions about how the new privatized system works that DHH has begun holding daily conference calls to address concerns.

The five companies participating in the Bayou Health system include Amerigroup, LaCare, Louisiana Health Connections, Community Health Solutions and United Healthcare.

All five have made campaign contributions to Jindal either directly or indirectly:

• United Healthcare made seven contributions totaling $25,000 to Jindal between November 2003 and December 2009 and $5,000 to the Republican Party of Louisiana in December of 2010;

• Louisiana Healthcare Connections Vice-President Jesse Hunter of St. Louis, MO., contributed $1,500 to Jindal in October of 2008 and McGlinchey Stafford law firm, Louisiana Healthcare’s agent of record, made six contributions totaling $22,000 between September 2003 and March 2011;

• Amerigroup made three contributions totaling $5,500 to Jindal in November of 2003 and in February and September of 2011;

• Community Health Solutions contributed $5,000 to Jindal in January of 2011 and John Fortunato, Jr., vice-president of the corporation’s agent of record, contributed $1,000 to Jindal in May of 2007;

• Neither LaCare nor any of its officers were found to have made any direct contributions to Jindal but the company’s agent of record, Adams and Reese law firm of New Orleans, made five contributions totaling more than $19,000 to Jindal between September of 2003 and December 2008.

Both Adams and Reese and McGlinchey Stafford law firms, it should be noted, also served as registered agents for other corporations, making it impossible to tie their contributions directly to the Bayou Health participating companies.

Recently, when LouisianaVoice made a formal request of the Division of Administration (DOA) for copies of the state contract report provided the Louisiana Civil Service Commission at its monthly meeting, DOA legal counsel David Boggs replied that no such report existed.

The same request was then made to Civil Service and that agency complied immediately.

The report from Civil Service shows that the contracts with LaCare (through its parent company, Amerihealth Mercy of LA., Inc.), Louisiana Health Connections and Amerigroup are for $985.8 million each while Community Health Solutions and United Healthcare have contracts for $68 million each.

The combined amount of the five contracts is almost $3.1 billion.

Finally, there is the simmering rift between Jindal and the state’s elected legal representative, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, over procedural differences in the ongoing litigation over the BP Gulf oil spill.

Caldwell accuses Jindal of interfering with his handling of the case while Jindal’s chief of staff Stephen Waguespack, himself an attorney, claims the governor has every right to involve himself as the state’s chief executive officer.

At issue is the method in which each prefers to pay attorneys representing the state. Caldwell wants to pay the lawyers a set rate as work is performed while Jindal wants to pay a percentage of the final judgment.

The difference could mean millions of dollars to the state.

Federal Judge Carl Barbier of New Orleans has ordered plaintiff states, of which Louisiana is one, to set aside 4 percent of what could be billions of dollars in settlement money.

Jindal, to the outrage of Caldwell, signed off on a legal document in which he agreed not to appeal any awards made for legal fees.

It is rare, if not virtually unheard of, for one to sign away rights to appeal a verdict. Such action locks the party in on whatever unpredictable decision might come down.

Caldwell said that by agreeing to the 4 percent set-aside for lawyers, Jindal is in violation of both state law and the state constitution to direct money away from the state treasury to private lawyers.

He said his attempts to settle the dispute met with accusations by Jindal’s aides that Caldwell was trying to intimidate the governor.

Waguespack countered that Jindal is not afraid to meet Caldwell.

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