The governor says two DCF officials should not have accepted trips to Australia paid for by a vendor. He's awaiting an inspector general's report.
By JONI JAMES
Published July 7, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday criticized two high-ranking state employees who took a trip to Australia paid for by a company that won a no-bid contract last year with the Department of Children and Families.
"Maybe it may have passed the test of whatever the Ethics Commission said," Bush said. "But it's inappropriate to go to Australia on the dime of a vendor. That's inappropriate."
Bush's remarks to reporters came four days after DCF Secretary Jerry Regier placed the two employees, Deputy Secretary Ben Harris and Information Technology Officer Glenn Palmiere, on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by Bush's inspector general.
Harris, 28, and Palmiere, 41, traveled to Sydney, Australia, last month at the expense of InterSystems Corp., a Massachusetts software company that won a $500,000 contract last year to integrate DCF's 59 databases. The pair gave three speeches trumpeting the success of InterSystems' Ensemble software.
The state Ethics Commission had informally said they could accept the trip if they reported it and their agency had no other restrictions.
Early last week, Harris and Palmiere asked the Ethics Commission again if the air fare and six nights' accommodations and meals were "reasonable," or should they reimburse InterSystems for some of the expense. The commission has not replied.
Bush, who holds his employees to a more stringent ethics code than state law requires, said he has no doubt it was improper.
The governor said he didn't know exactly what his inspector general is investigating or what the outcome will be. Under state law, he said, he won't know until the investigation is complete because it involves a whistle-blower complaint.
The governor's auditors also are expected to investigate allegations from another vendor that Harris and Palmiere were unduly influenced by lobbyists in the award of a $21-million state contract to complete DCF's HomeSafenet computer system.
That contract, awarded in April, went to American Management Systems of Virginia. Until May, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating served on AMS' board. Keating recommended Regier to Bush in 2002. Regier and Keating have denied that Keating had any role in the procurement process for AMS.
