"Jeb!"'s signature privatization program is being prosecuted by, of all people, Jebbie wannabe, and leading GOP candidate for Governor, AG Charlie Crist (who of course had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing something, anything).
"The state's largest privatization contract, with the firm Convergys, is now the subject of a false-claims prosecution by Florida's attorney general." And, Charlie had to be goaded (with an ethics complaint) into taking action:
Crist's office agreed to take up the qui tam action Monday. Politically, though, it was too late. Democrats had already bashed Crist as a do-nothing, and [whistleblower] McDowell filed an ethics complaint last month against Crist, alleging the attorney general was dragging his feet to protect Convergys because one of its lobbyists is an advisor to Crist's governor campaign. Crist denied the charge.
Yet Crist is sitting on his hands on other Convergys wrongdoing:
Crist's office has declined to take another qui tam case involving Convergys, in which two former whistle-blowers said Denver-based GDX Co., a Convergys subcontractor, gave foreign workers access to confidential state worker information -- contrary to a contract provision to keep all such data on U.S. soil. Convergys said it didn't know of the alleged act.
But Tom Lewis, head of the state agency overseeing the Convergys contract, said his investigators believe otherwise, and he proposed a $5 million fine against the company.
"There's clear evidence stuff was being done overseas," Lewis told The Miami Herald last month."
State to prosecute contractor". This latter issue is potentially the most explosive, with work formerly performed by Floridians being shipped overseas, and the leading GOP candidate for governor doing nothing about it.
Cross posted at Florida Politics.