State lawmakers questioned the Alabama Department of Corrections this week over its abrupt cancellation of a billion-dollar prison health care contract and the emergency award of a new half-billion-dollar deal, raising concerns about oversight.
The conversation began when Mandy Spiers, assistant general counsel for the Alabama Department of Corrections, presented a contract renewal for Abilis Solutions Corp., a company ADOC has employed to modernize the offender information management system.
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said he plans to place a hold on all future ADOC contracts until he receives answers about how the department terminated its agreement with YesCare and selected NaphCare as its replacement.
As previously reported, ADOC abruptly canceled its $1 billion health care contract with YesCare last month. The department then executed a new, roughly $500 million agreement with NaphCare to provide medical services in Alabama’s prisons for the remaining two to two-and-a-half years of the prior contract term.
“It should just be a lot more difficult to spend half a billion dollars than that,” said England.
During the meeting, England said lawmakers were told at a recent Prison Oversight Committee hearing that the YesCare contract had already been canceled and that a new vendor had been hired, only to discover that the contract had not yet been executed.
“Somebody was here and flat out misrepresented the entire arrangement,” said England.
Spiers confirmed the NaphCare contract was executed about a week before the Contract Review Committee meeting. England questioned how the new contractor was selected, noting that NaphCare did not bid on the original contract awarded to YesCare several years ago.
“Who vetted that contractor?” asked England. “Who played a role in eliminating any potential other contractors? And how was it determined how much money was going to be given to the new company based on what was left to play out on the old?”
England also inquired whether the emergency procurement process was used and, if so, what standards governed that decision. He said research shows NaphCare has faced issues providing prison health care services in other states and questioned whether Alabama could be entering into another unstable arrangement.
“Clearly, it didn’t take a genius to see that YesCare was not going to be able to do the contract, but then it seems like we’re getting ourselves into the same situation, in a new contract, in an emergency situation, with somebody who may not be as prepared to handle the contract as YesCare was,” said England.
England, who serves on both the Prison Oversight Committee and the Contract Review Committee, said the two roles are increasingly colliding.
“It’s just got to the point where everything involving the Department of Corrections is flat out out of control, or it’s just not working well,” said England.
England also raised separate concerns about payments to Leo Technologies, which he said has received roughly $4.5 million to $5 million from ADOC without the contract appearing before the Contract Review Committee. He said an additional $290,000 was recently awarded and questioned why the contract was not bid or presented for legislative review.
“We can get you those answers ASAP,” said Spiers.
Sen. Tom Butler, R-Madison, also warned during the meeting that under the state’s Dixon-Butler Permanent Contract Review Act, which Butler sponsored, contracts required to come before the committee but that fail to do so can be considered “void ab initio,” meaning void from their inception.
“You might want to look at that before the Attorney General does,” said Butler.
