PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Governor Chafee defended his decision Monday to withhold information on an effort to find waste and fraud in state human services programs, saying his administration began the project with the goal of obtaining internal information that would point to waste and abuse.
"A great deal of misconception has been generated over the past several days regarding the preliminary findings of the work done by Ken Block," Chafee said in a statement, referring to the businessman/software engineer who has done the work.
Chafee added: "I remain committed to transparency and if, at the appropriate time, a determination is made that publicly releasing the information will not jeopardize our ability to root out fraud and abuse, I will certainly do so."
Statement by Gov. Chafee: "A great deal of misconception has been generated over the past several days regarding the preliminary findings of the work done by Ken Block. This work was commissioned by my administration for internal use to find any instances of waste, fraud, abuse, or process failure that could be remedied to save taxpayer dollars. These findings are now being reviewed and are currently being turned over to various appropriate agencies for investigation and process corrections to save taxpayer dollars. "I remain committed to transparency and if, at the appropriate time, a determination is made that publicly releasing the information will not jeopardize our ability to root out fraud and abuse, I will certainly do so. The work with Ken Block, the Office of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Human Services is continuing. Additionally, my FY2013 budget contained funding for an integrity unit within OHHS. Those positions are now being filled and recently an RFP has been issued to contract with a vendor to add an additional layer of waste and fraud prevention to the current system. "I have chosen at this time not to release the preliminary findings to protect our ability to adequately investigate them. As I stated on '10 News Conference,' what should matter to Rhode Islanders is that my administration commissioned this work and is acting on it."
Updated March 11, 2013 3:01 PM