In a feeble attempt to placate the public’s demand to know the details behind the Martinez Administration’s undisclosed accusations of fraud against as many as 15 New Mexico behavioral heath providers, the Attorney General’s office release of a heavily redacted audit only muddies and delays the issue further.
And one of the few things we were actually able to glean from the audit was that auditors from Massachusetts-based Public Consulting Group Inc. (PCG) wrote that “PCG’s Case File Audit did not uncover what it would consider to be credible allegations of fraud, nor any significant concerns related to consumer safety.”
The governor and the state Human Services Department (HSD) have wreaked havoc on the vital services depended on by the most vulnerable New Mexicans who need it the most. They claimed from the beginning that there was widespread fraud and we still haven’t learned much beyond their cherry-picked details that have been leaked to the press. And we also know that the administration visited at least one Arizona company that took over the mental health services program before the audit was even completed.
This whole fiasco is rotten to the core and it’s only going to get worse unless somebody starts telling us something specific. Too many lives have been upended and the Martinez administration continues to get a pass for its blatant disregard of due-process and its obvious patronage to an out-of-state company.
The HSD’s action to freeze funds to the 15 nonprofit health providers without providing specific details is about as unjust as a government can get.
One media outlet previously reported that the administration is acting on a ‘trust us’ basis for not releasing any information, but their actions are about as untrustworthy as it gets. They promised that there wouldn’t be any interruption of services and right from the start there were interruptions. They have provided no concrete justifications for their actions and they seem to be perturbed when asked for the truth.
New Mexicans deserve better than this obvious smokescreen.
October 23, 2013