{"id":2220064,"date":"2024-04-13T10:11:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T14:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-democrats-call-for-probe-of-1-1b-contract\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T10:15:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T14:15:44","slug":"georgia-democrats-call-for-probe-of-1-1b-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-democrats-call-for-probe-of-1-1b-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Democrats are requesting an investigation into a $1.1 billion contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgeorgia-democrats-call-for-probe-of-1-1b-contract%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2220064&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Georgia Democrats are calling for an investigation\u2063 into suspicions raised by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/professor-who-went-on-strike-for-social-justice-hit-with-hefty-bill-from-state-auditor\/\" title=\"Professor Who Went on Strike for Social Justice Hit with Hefty Bill from State Auditor\">state audit<\/a> regarding potential bypassing of state contracting \u200bregulations by Gov. Brian Kemp&#8217;s administration. The spotlight is on a $1.1 \u2062billion contract held by\u2062 the Georgia Department of Human Services for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washington-post-dhs-mayorkas-to-restart-partial-remain-in-mexico-policy\/\" title=\"Washington Post: DHS Mayorkas to Restart Partial 'Remain in Mexico' Policy\">distributing debit cards<\/a> to\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/americans-leaving-unemployment-rolls-more-quickly-in-states-that-cut-off-benefits\/\" title=\"Americans Leaving Unemployment Rolls More Quickly In States That Cut Off Benefits\">benefit recipients<\/a>. The specific\u2063 agencies to lead\u2063 the \u2063inquiry have yet to be \u200didentified.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2014 Georgia Democrats want an investigation after they said a state audit surfaced questions about whether Gov. Brian Kemp\u2019s administration circumvented state contracting requirements, potentially for political gain.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not immediately clear which state or federal agencies might lead the probe, and Democrats said they haven\u2019t formally requested an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>At issue is a $1.1 billion contract the Georgia Department of Human Services executed to distribute debit cards to direct benefits recipients, including Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The contract was highlighted in a January review by the Georgia Department of Audits &#038; Accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOrdinarily, when \u2026 an individual government agency receives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/calif-officials-say-10-of-states-unemployment-payments-linked-to-fraud\/\" title=\"Calif. officials say 10% of state\u2019s unemployment payments linked to fraud\">federal funds<\/a>, there are rules that apply to how those federal funds are to be used,\u201d state Rep. Tanya Miller, D-Atlanta, said during a virtual media conference in response to a question from The Center Square. \u201cI certainly think that there is a question, at least, about whether or not there was some misuse of federal funds or some misuse of the process for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-using-supreme-courts-bostock-to-reshape-discrimination-law-nationwide\/\" title=\"Biden admin leveraging Bostock ruling to reshape discrimination law nationwide\">distributing federal funds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s a legitimate question to be asked,\u201d Miller added. \u201cBut certainly, there are multiple criminal investigative offices that would have jurisdiction over this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cspecial examination,\u201d conducted at the request of the Senate Appropriations Committee, explored state purchasing and competitive bidding. Overall, it found that \u201cpurchases largely comply with state competitive bidding requirements with a few exceptions\u201d and that \u201cadditional guidance and audits would likely lead to fewer noncompliant purchases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDHS and the Governor\u2019s Office of Planning and Budget directly provided a solicitation document to four potential suppliers and obtained proposals from three,\u201d the audit revealed. \u201cIn a manner similar to that typically used for solicitations, the proposals were reviewed and scored by a panel of DHS and OPB staff members to determine the awardee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the audit, a request for proposal under the state\u2019s competitive bidding requirements typically takes at least four to six months. In this case, the solicitation document for this program opened on Aug. 25, and the supplier was selected on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats pounced on the finding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt appears that the Kemp administration had something to gain because instead of following this state law, the audit found that the state handpicked a couple of vendors to ask for bids from and took only seven days to select a vendor for the $1.1 billion project,\u201d state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said during the briefing.<\/p>\n<p>Spokesmen for Kemp did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgia Democrats seek a probe following concerns from a state audit suggesting Gov. Brian Kemp&#8217;s administration bypassed contracting rules for possible political motives. The responsible agencies for the investigation are yet to be determined, as Democrats have not officially sought one. The issue revolves around<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2220065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24033695844438-1-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2220064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24033695844438-1-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2220064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2220064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2220064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2220064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}