EDITORIAL: State should give details of welfare hybrid plan

The Journal Gazette

State officials had plenty to say in 2005 as they prepared to sell a massive contract to run Indiana's welfare-eligibility system. High error rates. Poor service. Fraud and corruption. Inconsistent performance.

All were charges leveled against the system of determining who was qualified to receive food stamps, Medicaid and other assistance.

If we actually help a person in a timely manner, it is despite the system and because our employees' compassion has found a way around our decrepit business processes," wrote Mitch Roob, then the secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.

Now, three years later, in the wake of a disastrous experiment in privatization, FSSA officials are silent on details of how they will fix the mess they created. Gov. Mitch Daniels and his appointees owe Hoosiers a more transparent process than the one that created the ill-fated deal with IBM and Affiliated Computer Services, including a full accounting of what's left of the state-run eligibility system.