KWS Pre-Game Show

Filed in National by on April 13, 2010

This afternoon is the hearing in Dover about the Insurance Commissioner’s job performance. The hearing is supposed to cover the denial of coverage for stress tests for Delaware residents and the Captive Insurance Bureau but I imagine a lot of issues will arise in the hearing. I know that our very own liberalgeek plans on attending so you might see live coverage right here on the blog.

The News Journal adds some fuel to the fire by publishing two front page articles on the IC’s office. One article is about the how the denial of a stress test by the same company that was evaluating requests by BCBS of Delaware may have led to a death. The other article covers some of KWS’s hiring practices, including the hiring of Kinion for the Captive Insurance Bureau and some shoddy RFPs. As you no doubt know, here at Delaware Liberal we discussed the shoddy RFPs last year. See posts here, here, here, here, here and here.

Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart failed to conduct a publicly advertised search last year before handing out state consulting contracts worth more than half a million dollars annually to three people to run the Bureau of Captive and Financial Insurance Products.

Stewart and members of her staff acknowledge that no formal proposals were sought before contracts were signed with the consultants, who were supporters of Stewart’s 2008 election campaign.

Hey, we’re glad the News Journal finally noticed but these issues have been occuring since Stewart came into office.

Her office is a separate branch under the state Constitution from the executive branch topped by the governor and may not be subject to Office of Management and Budget regulations requiring formal bidding for such service contracts. OMB officials directed requests for clarification to a section of state code that did not clearly resolve the question.

Stewart’s office ultimately did issue requests for proposals (RFPs) for two positions — one for a lawyer, another for a marketer — after contracts were signed. That came after a request for RFPs by OMB. The requests for proposals elicited no response.

The IC’s office may be treated separately under Delaware’s Constitution but that doesn’t mean it’s not subject to oversight. Oversight is desperately needed in this case and I hope one outcome of today’s hearings is that the legislature addresses these loopholes.

Tags: ,

About the Author ()

Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (20)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. anon says:

    Prediction: hearings will find no violation of law. Which will reveal the weaknesses in the law, but nobody will follow up by proposing reforms.

    The industry money that passes through the IC office needs to be brought into some oversight framework to prevent public corruption.

    And the procurement law needs to be reformed so that professional services RFPs are brought under normal procurement rules instead of the “relaxed” version of the rules.

    But the hearings will provide plenty of fodder for grandstanding all around.

  2. liberalgeek says:

    I have received a report that the IC’s office has enlisted the help of a former employee of DEDO to help them prep for the meetings. The guy left DEDO a few weeks ago and has turned up in the IC’s office, probably as an expensive consultant.

  3. cassandra_m says:

    Then we’ll have to make sure that people know that there is a price for not reforming the operation and oversight of this office.

    Whether or not there are legal issues, there certainly are both management and judgment issues. Certainly requiring this office to follow the procurement and reporting rules and regs that the rest of the government has to follow is a no-brainer. Perhaps impose upon this office some on-site OMB management to oversee procurements and contracts to get the processes and paperwork in line with the rest.

    They do have their own lawyer over there, who was remarkably difficult with us when we were trying to get information about this RFP. Basically he wanted us to know that we had no right to see a public RFP. Perhaps we should have shown him or DE Tax returns to verify our status as real taxpayers. Perhaps he needs to be replaced so they can get someone who will be more focused on doing the taxpayer’s business rather than hiding it from them.

    And at the end of the day, it really is well past time to professionalize this office and make it a clear part of the Executive.

    Thanks for posting this, UI.

  4. anon says:

    Basically he wanted us to know that we had no right to see a public RFP.

    I believe he is correct… if you want to see the winners you have to FOIA. Delaware procurement law around professional services is remarkably weak.

  5. cassandra_m says:

    We were asking to see the RFP. How do you have a public competition for services with no chance at seeing the RFP?

  6. anon says:

    They aren’t even required to issue an RFP, so there is no law governing whether they have to show it to you or not (other than FOIA).

  7. cassandra_m says:

    Then that is worse than weak — it is a complete disgrace. RFPs or RFQs for services or goods to be bought by any state agency should always be public. There is no way they can even pretend to be getting anything on a competitive basis without it. And sole sourced stuff should be rare, but the sole source justification ought to be formal AND public.

  8. P.Schwartz says:

    you will all soon discover that there is no penalty for violating the procurement regulations. The law says X is illegal, but provides no penalty for those caught doing X.

  9. anon says:

    That’s why I keep saying the problem is bigger than KWS.

  10. Geezer says:

    Thank you, P Scwartz. You’re actually OK when you speak for yourself.

  11. anon says:

    The law requires that for professional services, they must post an advertisement for the work in a statewide newspaper, except for some circumstances (emergencies, and ongoing contracts) where they don’t have to post anything.

    It is their choice if they want to also write an RFP. And if they do write an RFP, since there is no law requiring an RFP, they do not need to follow the usual rules for RFPs other than the minimal rules required for professional services contracts.

    All the hardcore procurement rules you imagine when you think of RFPs do exist for Material Goods RFPs, but not for professional services.

    Maybe instead of asking for an RFP, we should be asking for a copy of that ad (or looking for it ourselves in the papers).

  12. MJ says:

    Was the lawyer Mitch Crane?

  13. cassandra_m says:

    The lawyer was Michael Gould. He sent along a long list of pre-qualification questions which he did not, of course, ask anyone else to answer. But why would he? They had no intention of really competing this work in the first place.

  14. anonone says:

    Mebbe LG will get a new picture of Perky.

  15. anonone says:

    So was Perky hauled off to prison in chains, or what?

  16. anon2 says:

    We got a whole new set of lies from this fraud. She had to hire the cronies for the Captive as an emergency? What BS – sounds like her henchman Jacobson created that one out of thin air, too. No one forgot that she harrassed and hounded Bill White out of office to make room for her campaign contributor Kinion. Bill didn’t leave voluntarily, so she knew way ahead of time he’d be gone at the end of June of 2009 and could have found equal Delaware talent for less money.

    The short-sleeved red dress she wore at the hearing was just as ridiculous as the idea of her being IC to begin with. Any real professional would have worn a dark suit with a white blouse. What a total a..hole.

  17. arthur says:

    If you are doing a RFP how is it not public? do you not ask the public to bid or do you only court those you want to making it a private rfp? wow, what a true fiasco.

  18. liberalgeek says:

    I think they wanted to pre-qualify bidders before they could see the RFP. It does reek of sliminess.

  19. cassandra m says:

    Pre-qualification is fine and often used, but the procurement docs need to be public. Period. Keeping these procurements secret is just silly — they aren’t doing anything that is classified.