Appeal Tribune Wednesday, November 29, 2017 3B
ODOT director: Problems are fixed
Legislators’ reactions
range from outrage to
support for Garrett
TRACY LOEW
SALEM STATESMAN JOURNAL
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon Department of Transporta-
tion director Matt Garrett told a legisla-
tive committee in mid-November that
the agency has fixed problems at its Mo-
tor Carrier Division detailed in a recent
internal audit, a 15-month, $180,000 Ore-
gon Department of Justice investigation
and a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit
settlement.
The Statesman Journal reported on
the investigations earlier this month.
Garrett declined to be interviewed for
that article.
But on Nov. 13, the Legislature’s Joint
Interim Committee on Ways and Means
Transportation and Economic Develop-
ment questioned him about it.
In his testimony, Garrett downplayed
the findings.
“I’ll quote the gentleman who was the
special assistant attorney general, say-
ing ‘There are no smoking guns here.
There are allegations, and allegations in-
formed by partial information. A lot of
ambiguity. A lot of behaviors that were
probably you could question. On both
sides of the table here’,” Garrett told
lawmakers.
Troubles
Continued from Page 2B
u Paying for patients no longer eli-
gible: Allen said that as of July, health
agency staffers estimated Oregon might
have to repay $17.3 million in federal
funds because the state continued pay-
ing health organizations to care for peo-
ple the state had retroactively deemed
ineligible for Medicaid. The problem
dates back to January 2014. But new
leaders at the agency have cast doubt on
whether the $17 million is in the ballpark,
saying they are still working to identify
the scope of the problem.
u Residential mental health facili-
ties: States cannot claim federal Medi-
caid funds to care for patients at large
residential mental health treatment fa-
cilities, such as the state hospital. Ore-
gon “overclaimed” $9.7 million in feder-
al money for people in these facilities,
which the state already repaid with gen-
eral fund money this year, according to
Allen’s letter.
u Bariatric surgery payments: Ore-
gon paid more than it should have for
these weight loss surgeries from 2009
through 2015, and started trying to re-
coup the $1.5 million in overpayments a
year ago.
“As of October 2017, most of the over-
payments have still not been repaid by
providers, resulting in an accounts re-
ceivable balance of $1.1 million,” Allen
wrote.
u Medicaid for dead and incarcer-
ated people: “If a client is incarcerated
His testimony is at odds with the
DOJ’s written report, which details prob-
lems with contracting, electrical work,
engineering, inventory, management
and more, and contains none of those
statements.
An ODOT spokesman later told the
Statesman Journal that Garrett was
quoting his memory of what the DOJ in-
vestigator, Keith Bauer, told him in mid-
March during an oral presentation on the
findings.
In an email response to questions,
Bauer said he recalls saying there was no
smoking gun, but declined to comment
on the rest of Garrett’s statement.
Legislators’ reactions, meanwhile,
ranged from outrage to solid support for
Garrett.
“Disappointed is probably an under-
statement,” Rep. Ron Noble, R-McMinn-
ville, said in an interview.
“I couldn’t run a police department
that way. I’d be run out of town pretty
quick,” the former police chief said.
Rep. Susan McLain, D-Hillsboro, said
she asked Garrett about any pending au-
dits after she was made co-chair of the
Joint Committee on Legislative Audits.
Garrett told her about the internal au-
dit and DOJ investigation, she said, but
assured her they showed no malfeasance
or negligence, simply weak leadership
and protocols that needed to be tightened
up a little bit.
The rest of the lawmakers inter-
viewed said they heard nothing about the
whistleblower allegations, investiga-
tions or lawsuit settlement, even as the
Legislature was debating a $5.3 billion
transportation infrastructure funding
bill and ODOT’s ability to manage it.
“It raises concerns for me,” Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, said. “We deal with
the budgets, we deal with policy, we deal
with oversight. And I think it’s important
for us to be aware and to know about de-
partments we’re funding if things aren’t
going like they’re supposed to.”
Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, said
he doesn’t think the problems at Motor
Carrier reflect on management at the
rest of ODOT or the department’s ability
to manage the massive infrastructure
spending package.
“When you have a large bureaucracy
like ODOT does it’s not uncommon when
one section, one division has some prob-
lems,” Evans said. “I really think Matt
Garrett’s the kind of guy that, when he
recognizes something’s wrong he ad-
dresses it. When it comes to these kinds
of things I generally defer to the leaders
I have confidence in.”
Regardless of how the Motor Carrier
issues were handled, the lawmakers said
accountability at ODOT will improve un-
der the transportation infrastructure
bill.
Among the provisions of House Bill
2017, passed in July:
» ODOT will hire an internal auditor
to report jointly to the Oregon Transpor-
tation Commission and the ODOT direc-
tor.
» The commission will be required to
provide all ODOT audits to two legisla-
tive committees each biennium.
» Authority to hire the ODOT director
will be moved from the governor to the
commission.
» The commission will appoint a con-
tinuous improvement advisory commit-
tee.
» The commission will post informa-
tion about each project on a public web-
site.
“I would have a hard time believing
that there won’t be many of my col-
leagues with a microscope and nothing
but time to make sure this process gets
done right,” Evans said.
tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-
399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tra-
cy_Loew
or dies, (per-person)payments should be
retroactively adjusted to recoup any
payments made after the date of incar-
ceration or death,” Allen wrote. “This is
not occurring correctly in the system
and … payments have not been fully re-
couped from the CCOs.” The agency cur-
rently seeks repayment only for the last
year.
u Abortion coverage: The state esti-
mates it used $1.8 million or so in federal
funds for abortions, which it will have to
repay. Federal law generally bans using
federal funds to pay for abortions, al-
though there are exceptions for cases of
rape, incest and when the pregnant wom-
an’s life is in danger, according to the
American Civil Liberties Union.
u Money due to drug labelers: Ore-
gon owes an estimated $22.3 million to
drug labelers because the state has not
passed along some of the money it was
supposed to as part of the Medicaid drug
rebate program.
Allen also cited problems at his agen-
cy and elsewhere with getting money to
the right places. They included:
u State accounting problem: The
health authority has received an estimat-
ed $20 million from the Division of Child
Support to pay for children’s health care
but has not properly accounted for that
money. So state and federal programs
were billed for the children’s health
care.
u State budget problem: The health
agency could gain $14.1 million for nurs-
ing facility and post-acute care that was
incorrectly sent to the Department of
Human Services over the past year.
The health authority might also be
able to get federal money for services it
has not sought reimbursement for in the
past, or for which it claimed less federal
funding than it could have, Allen wrote.
Examples include services provided to
tribal members at non-tribal facilities,
and certain preventive services.
JOBS.STATESMANJOURNAL.COM
Matt
Garrett
“When you have a large
bureaucracy like ODOT does
it’s not uncommon when one
section, one division has
some problems.”
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