Daniels Pulls Plug On FSSA Privatization Contract

I really wish Gov. Mitch Daniels had been reading the blogs a couple of years ago and took to heart some of the concerns raised then before he jumped into the massive privatization of welfare services for the state's Family & Social Services Administration. Having said that, he has finally admitted today what a major disaster the effort has been and made a decision that must have been very difficult for him to make to terminate the $1.34 billion privatization agreement with IBM and ACS. He's not calling it quits on privatization altogether, but at least the decision-making to grant benefits will be restored to state-employed caseworkers. "In a news conference in his office, Daniels thanked 'the critics, those who have raised concerns and alarms, legislators, advocates and others'", the Star's Mary Beth Schneider reports. "In many many respects they were right," Daniels said. "The system wasn’t working and it wasn't getting better, despite best efforts.” He insists the new "hybrid" will save tens of millions of dollars, although the savings will not be what he once envisioned.