Comptroller's Statement on Legislative Request to Investigate Accenture Contract

Office of State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn

5/10/2006

AUSTIN -- "The Accenture contract appears to be the perfect storm of wasted tax dollars, reduced access to services for our most vulnerable Texans, and profiteering at the expense of our Texas taxpayers. The governor implemented this plan in haste. He fired state employees before he knew if the company could handle their jobs, and now the agency is bringing back those very state employees to fix the mess.

"I clearly have the statutory responsibility for all fiscal concerns of the state and this is certainly one of them. I am going to do a review and audit of the Accenture contract. I will be asking for information and I will share all that information as I get it.

"Let me set the record straight on what the governor's office continues to say. The governor has been saying that this was an eTexas recommendation, and it was not. The eTexas recommendation was very, very limited. The eTexas recommendation said that we should use call centers for CHIP and children's Medicaid only. It did not lay off a single state employee in over five years. What the governor did, and the governor did it in haste, was put all eligibility services---TANF, food stamps, long-term care---he put all eligibility services in call centers.

"And the result is we've got the perfect storm here - wasted tax dollars, reduced access to services and profiteering at the expense of Texas taxpayers. It is clearly my responsibility to look after the fiscal concerns of this state. I will review and audit the Accenture contract."