The Worm Infested Big Apple

Back in 2011 I said that New York represents all that is wrong with workers' compensation for three reasons:

1. A state agency that ignores legal mandates and when the mandates are finally dealt with are done so with out conviction or determination.

2. Litigation drives disability, pushing a class of people into a state of being that would not otherwise occur.

3. The government is business' worst enemy with self-serving, non-responsive agencies.

In each of those respects I had pointed, specific examples of the worst of government.

Of course I have my own axe to grind against the NY State Workers' Compensation Board for its behavior towards WorkCompCentral: most recently what I deemed unreasonable penalties for failing to "secure compensation" despite corrective action; silence from the board to the media following blistering WorkCompCentral news reports of untrustworthy behavior; and lack of responsiveness to public document requests.

The public records request arises out of board criticism for its handling of contracts for scanning documents into its computing system.

The NY SWCB awarded a contract to scan its documents on Jan. 1, 2005, to SourceHOV, which was formerly known as SourceCorp BPS Inc.

On April 18, the SWCB announced in a bulletin on its website that it was switching to a new scanning vendor, Xerox.

Bowzer is unrepentant towards NY.

“The projected target date for this transition is June 1, 2014, with all board document processing becoming fully operational with Xerox by July of 2014,” wrote WCB Chairman Robert E. Beloten.

The bulletin had cited “delays and difficulties in the document scanning process.” But it did not mention SourceHOV by name or that it had paid the company nearly $80 million, not including $8.1 million still due under a contract extension through Dec. 31, which the WCB awarded March 14.

Continuing a pattern of practice dating back to WorkCompCentral's first reporting of questionable activity at the board years back by reporter Michael Whiteley, the current media representative for the board did not respond to phone and email questions about whether the transition to Xerox had been completed as scheduled and, if so, why the contract with SourceHOV continued until the end of the year.

In April, McEneny said the SWCB had intended to end its relationship with SourceHOV last November, when it entered into a new service contract that included Xerox as its new scanning subcontractor.

Less than two weeks before the WCB publicly announced its switch to Xerox and acknowledged difficulties with its scanning process, the state comptroller, Tom DiNapoli, had blamed SourceHOV for botching its job handling 2013 state tax returns using paper forms.

There are connections between SourceHOV and board commissioner Frances M. Libous.

The district of Libous' husband, Sen. Tom Libous, the No. 2 Republican official in the state Senate, happens to be the district where SourceHOV did all its scanning work: Binghamton, New York.

SourceHOV is a long time contributor to Libous.

In researching the contract issue about SourceHOV and Xerox, WorkCompCentral reporter Peter Mantius made a very specific public records request, asking the state comptroller's office for contracts by number.

The delays, silence and non-responsiveness was (and continues to be) significant.

And still despite spending $88 million over the years with SourceHOV, unanswered questions about the contract extension while another contract with Xerox was in force, obvious and public issues with the performance of SourceHOV in its SWCB contract, and a 22% error rate in scanned documents for the Department of Taxation and Finance under a separate contract, there is no public indication that the SourceHOV contracts with the SWCB and the Department of Taxation and Finance have come under the scrutiny of the commission or the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Denigrate California and its workers' compensation system all you want; at least the government on the Left Coast is generally responsive, doesn't hide behind silence and is generally kept in check by other public officials.

In contrast it seems the entire government of New York works against its people.

The Big Apple is worm-infested.