The state Department of Health and Human Services is troubled, to say the least, and has been for some time. Discovering that DHHS continues to pay exorbitant fees for outside consultants rather than accomplishing its work on its own doesn’t help restore faith in the organization.
This information came to light at a legislative oversight committee meeting last week, the Journal’s Richard Craver reported. Counting DHHS’ recent extension of a no-bid contract with consultant firm Alvarez & Marsal from $3 million to $6.82 million, the agency has spent more than $7.2 million on consultants over the past 20 months, the Journal reported.
This breaks down to $473 an hour for the consultant’s three principals; $394 an hour for five directors; and $242 an hour for each of nine analysts, according to a report by the News & Observer of Raleigh. Sen. Floyd McKissick, attending the meeting, noted that one of those consultants works out to $800,000 a year.
Nice work if you can get it. Many of us could offer a few choice words for free.
“We need a full overview of what the consultant has done and the cost savings,” McKissick said at the meeting. “I don’t believe they are that unique in what they offer, and we should be able to hire and keep personnel within DHHS to offer these services at a much lower cost.”
DHHS officials acknowledged that an agency official would be paid less than $185,000 for the same work – so it’s hard to see its expenditures as much more than a waste of money.
DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos, however, defended the expense as a necessity.
“We had an emergency, we had to figure out a way to get our work done, and we succeeded with that,” Wos said.
She said that Alvarez & Marsal’s recommendations have helped streamline operations, particularly with providers and accelerating drug-rebate payments, assisting with job recruitment and hiring of senior positions, and emphasizing collaboration and clear accountability responsibilities.
So how long does an emergency last?
And at what cost? Are these really matters that staffers couldn’t have worked out?
To their credit, legislators on both sides of the aisle have taken issue with Wos and her staff, not only for the high price of consultants, but also for the continuing problem of the DHHS’ inability to provide timely and dependable Medicaid data and its inability to completely resolve backlog issues with the state's food-stamp application program and claims application program.
The consultants seem a tremendous waste of money – especially when the results of the expense are in doubt. It still takes longer than it should for legislators to get data in response to simple questions.
We’re glad that the legislative committee is paying attention to what’s happening with DHHS. Many needy people count on its ability to operate. The agency has improved, but has far more work to do before we can think of it as being reliable.
