Ind. Lawmakers: ACS Performance Now Under Scrutiny

KEN KUSMER

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Influential lawmakers said Tuesday that Indiana welfare subcontractor Affiliated Computer Services Inc. will come under closer scrutiny now that Gov. Mitch Daniels has fired IBM Corp. from the project.

Rep. Peggy Welch, a Bloomington Democrat who sits on both the State Budget Committee and the General Assembly's Medicaid Oversight Commission, said some lawmakers wonder whether Dallas-based ACS was responsible for some of the poor service, lost documents and other problems that resulted in Daniels firing IBM Thursday from a 10-year, $1.34 billion contract to automate intake for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare benefits.

"We're going to be watching closely on ACS, because there is a perception that they are just as bad an actor as IBM," Welch said after a meeting of the Legislature's Medicaid Oversight Commission.

Rep. Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville, said lawmakers remain skeptical of ACS because it was brought in by Mitch Roob, a former ACS executive who oversaw the IBM/ACS project as Family and Social Services Administration secretary until January, when he became Indiana's secretary of commerce.

"People are uncomfortable that ACS is still in place and that they were brought on board by former Secretary Roob," said Crouch, one of several Evansville lawmakers who've led legislative criticism of the welfare changes.