Albany, NY (WRGB) — Appearing on CBS6’s Power & Politics, NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli explained his Office’s role, or lack thereof, in the State’s procurement of the $1 billion contract with PPL to overhaul its CDPAP program.
“This is one of those, how do I put it, unfortunate situations where we were specifically written out of our normal role to review a program like that,” DiNapoli said. “It was a big contract. Everybody understands that service and providing care at home is a great concept…it was part of budget negotiations last year, and normally we would have the ability to review the contract and sign off on it before it would it would be given out. The statutory language said the Comptroller review is exempted from this particular contract…this is one of those cases where, to me, it made no sense for us to be cut out.”
CBS6 has reached out to legislative leaders for more information on the matter, in the meantime, a Governor’s spokesperson, Sam Spokony, says:
“New York State transitioned to a stronger CDPAP nearly a year ago by cutting out hundreds of wasteful middlemen – and the results have been outstanding. Our much-needed reforms have already saved over $1 billion for New York taxpayers while also protecting home care for those who need it – with a new survey showing widespread, growing support for the new and improved CDPAP.”
They say the Department of Health was required, and did conduct, a competitive procurement process to select PPL. The intended result with this transition was to clean up areas of fraud within the CDPAP program, and the Governor’s Office estimates taxpayers have saved more than $1 billion.
Stay tuned for more perspective on this story.