CONSUMER WATCHDOG BLASTS NO-BID CONTRACTS BY COVERED CALIFORNIA

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By Miriam Raftery

October 13, 2014 (Sacramento)--Why did Covered California award $184 million in no-bid contracts – including millions to consulting companies with ties to executives on the Covered California board?   For instance, $4.2 million went to the Tori Group, whose founder once worked with Covered California’s executive director, Peter Lee, and other contracts went to a subsidiary of a firm  that Lee once led.

Those are the findings of a report by Consumer Watchdog. Which is calling on Attorney General Kamala Harris to investigate. 

Covered California has claimed that the uncompetitive contracts were needed to meet deadlines for creating insurance exchanges under the federal Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

But Consumer Watchdog’s president Jamie Court says, “This isn’t about speed, it’s about being opaque,” the Sacramento Bee reports.  She adds, “For $4.2 million to flow to a former associate without any oversight is the antithesis of open government and good government.”

 


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