Sunday, September 9, 2007

Riley Draws Heat Over State Contracts

Bob Lowry, of the Huntsville Times, continues his strong reporting on issues involving Alabama Governor Bob Riley and state contracts.

Lowry reports that the Alabama Medicaid Agency will get a $3.8-million computer-services contract with ACS Heritage Inc., which hired former Riley chief of staff Toby Roth just before the company won the bid.

Lowry had previously reported on the ACS contract, but his latest report also includes information about a $233.73 million contract the Alabama Department of Corrections will get with a St. Louis company, Correctional Medical Services Inc.

As in the ACS contract, the corrections contract did not go to the lowest bidder. And as in the ACS contract, the corrections contract went to a firm with ties to Riley. Correctional Medical Services was represented by former Republican Lt. Governor Steve Windom, a lobbyist with close ties to Riley.

Joe Turnham, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, suggested that Riley disclose on his Web site state contracts that go to former Riley cabinet members, staffers, campaign workers, campaign contributors, and GOP officials.

As usual, a Riley spokesman (this time Jeff Emerson) had no substantive response to Turnham's suggestion, accusing the Democrat of playing politics.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As usual, the Huntsville Times got a key part of the story wrong. Steve Windom does not represent the winner bidder. He represents one of the losing bidders. Pretty big reporting mistake.

Anonymous said...

Joe Turnham's comment is hilarious. His brother recently pleaded guilty to corrpution charges and agreed to coorperate with the Feds in the investigation against Roy Johnson and two year college corruption. Seems the Turnham family business, Alabama Contract Sales, was the beneficiary of many state contracts in return for allowing Johnson to use ACS as a money laundering conduit. Joe now claims that he is not involved in the bisuness but the records indicate that ACS was engaging in corrupt activities as far back as 1996--when Joe was employed by the company and when daddy Pete was the Dean of the Alabama Legislature. The Dems have NO credibility here.

legalschnauzer said...

Is Windom going to contact the Times to run a correction? Surely he wouldn't let such misinformation go.

Anonymous said...

The Huntsville Times ran a correction two days after this story ran. When will you?