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Post by pavel on Mar 7, 2016 9:10:57 GMT -6
Oklahoma DHS wants to downsize hundreds of workers while paying millions to consultantsThe Oklahoma Department of Human Services has paid out more than $5.6 million over the past four years to a New Jersey-based consulting group that includes three experts paid $315 an hour to oversee reforms to the state's troubled child welfare system. Taxpayer funded payments to Public Catalyst — which average more than $100,000 a month — continue at a time when DHS has offered voluntary buyouts to more than 400 employees as agency officials seek to make tens of millions of dollars in spending cuts over the next 16 months because of declining state revenues. The three out-of-state experts were appointed by a Tulsa federal judge to recommend and monitor reforms that were agreed upon as part of a settlement to a class-action lawsuit that focused on the horrific abuse of some children in state care. The experts, sometimes called co-neutrals, aren't the only ones being paid under the Public Catalyst contract. Their partners, associates, support staff and consultants also have been paid hourly rates ranging from $67 to $315, public records reveal. Read more: newsok.com/oklahoma-dhs-wants-to-downsize-hundreds-of-workers-while-paying-millions-to-consultants/article/5483111?earlyAccess=true
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