Criticism mounting on tracing contract
Uploading error adds to bipartisan backlash of state’s $295M deal
AUSTIN — More than a dozen Republican legislators are bucking Gov. Greg Abbott by calling for termination of a controversial $295 million coronavirus-related contract that was hastily awarded to a company whose CEO falsely claimed he had a Ph.D.
At least two top Democrats — including the party’s leader in the Texas House of Representatives — are also criticizing the deal with MTX Group Inc., saying the state needs to demonstrate the company is up to the vital job of tracking down people who have been exposed to COVID-19, or else it should pull the plug.
The bipartisan criticism comes as the agency that oversees the contract, the Texas Department of State Health Services, acknowledges that MTX “mistakenly uploaded” job training documents to its contact tracers that they were never supposed to get, a move some lawmakers say potentially raises privacy concerns.
Another potential privacy issue: MTX workers are using their own computers and personal email addresses, fueling worries — unwarranted worries, the state says — that private medical information about the people they investigate could be inadvertently divulged.
State Rep. Steve Toth, R-Conroe, like many conservative Republicans, already had privacy concerns about COVID-19 contact tracing before MTX got the job. But he said when he learned that MTX CEO Das Nobel had falsely claimed on his online LinkedIn bio that he had a doctorate from Colorado Technical University, he moved into the end-this-now camp even as Abbott staunchly defends the emergency contract.
“Up until that point, I was like, OK, I’m not good with this, but let’s just chill and find out more,” Toth said. “That pushed me over the edge.”
After the Houston Chronicle published a story about Nobel’s
doctorate claim, the MTX CEO changed his online biography to say he was in the doctorate program at Colorado Technical University but delivered “no dissertation.”
Toth, who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is a member of the conservative Texas Freedom Caucus in the state House, all 11 of whom are calling for termination of the contract. So are state Rep. James White, R-Hillister, and state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Rockwall. Elsewhere, state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, said he has been “against this contract since learning about its existence,” according to the Lufkin Daily News.
MTX said in a written statement that it welcomes scrutiny and is working with lawmakers who have expressed concerns to “make sure they have answers to their questions.”
“We are proud to report that in these early stages, we are integrating seamlessly with our state partners and we are ahead of schedule in delivering on this contract,” the statement said.
DSHS did not answer a question about its authority to end the contract, which has a clause that says the state can terminate it “in whole or in part, at any time” that the state sees fit.
Abbott spokesman John Wittman, who has portrayed the governor as confident in the company’s ability to perform, did not respond to questions from the Chronicle about the intraparty criticism, the CEO’s falsely claimed doctorate or where the governor stands on the contract now.
In a written statement, DSHS spokesman Chris Van Deusen said Nobel never claimed to the agency that he had a Ph.D. He also said MTX is “meeting the requirements of the contract.”
‘We needed to move quickly’
Van Deusen said MTX has set up a call center and integrated the telephone system into Texas Health Trace, a statewide management system for tracking COVID-19 cases and coordinating contact tracing efforts. Van Deusen also said this week that MTX has “brought on more than 600 additional contact tracers.”
Building up a force of contact tracers is a key part of the state’s strategy for limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus as Texas continues to reopen its battered economy. The state is a little more than 1,000 people short of its goal of 4,000 tracers as of this week, state officials say.
Most of them work for state or local health departments. MTX contact tracers and managers represent a fraction of the total number in Texas, but the way they were brought on board has stirred bipartisan blowback.
Lawmakers were caught off guard after the Texas Health and Human Services Commission quietly awarded the $295 million deal to little-known MTX, which has provided no publicly offered proof it’s ever handled such an important and lucrative assignment.
“Because of the COVID-19 disaster, we needed to move quickly to get the pieces in place to begin contact tracing so that our disaster response wouldn’t be delayed,” Van Deusen said.
Unlike most major state contracting deals, this one was never publicly posted. Instead DSHS, working with HHSC contracting personnel, decided which companies to solicit by email, officials said. The companies had 48 hours to respond, and the state awarded the contract to MTX only five days after the proposals were received.
Republican politicians are already facing pressure from conservative base voters who tend to equate widespread COVID-19 monitoring with overreaching government surveillance.
The unusual procurement process and MTX missteps have only added jet fuel to the political fire.
“Questions from my constituents regarding the MTX contract continue on an almost daily basis,” said state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, whose district includes MTX’s Frisco headquarters. “I have an obligation to my constituents and my own conscience to pursue answers to these questions, and that’s what I am doing.”
Even GOP Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has mostly presented a united front alongside Abbott, has unloaded on the way the contract was awarded by the agency overseen by a gubernatorial appointee, according to long excerpts of a tele-town hall event posted on Twitter by a Texas Tribune reporter.
“If it turns out not to be what they told us it is, I’m going to be the first person to stand up and say, ‘We need to stop right now,’ ” Patrick said. “It all happened within seven days and I can’t say strongly enough: I was not happy how it was handled, and we should’ve been in the loop.”
Documents obtained by the Chronicle from a person hired thanks to the MTX contract are fueling even more concern.
‘One fumble after another’
The documents show the workers were given “job aids” — instructions on how to perform their duties — with one of them telling contact tracing managers to create spreadsheets or Word documents with “relevant information,” including dates of birth, addresses and job duties of infected people and those with whom they came into contact.
The instructions describe how to securely send email with the attached case information, but those who clicked on online guidance for that got an error message or just no working links at all.
The newly hired person provided with the instructions expressed fears that following them would lead to a violation of health privacy laws because MTX workers are using their own computers and personal email addresses.
As it turns out, though, none of those instructions was supposed to be shared with the MTX contact tracers and managers, according to Van Deusen of DSHS. He said the documents were created for state employees who were doing contact tracing before the agency awarded the contract to MTX.
“We shared them with (MTX) as samples of job aids we had previously developed. It appears they were mistakenly uploaded to an internal MTX site and have since been removed since they’re no longer applicable,” Van Deusen said.
Another set of instructions warned those working under the MTX contract who were having system login problems to refrain from sending emails directly to the contractor running the Texas Health Trace system or to “anyone else from Texas state agencies.”
Van Deusen said the admonition related to the login issue and not the ability, broadly speaking, to communicate with the government.
“There’s no prohibition on contacting health officials,” Van Deusen said.
MTX said it has a “successful track record on public sector projects around the country” and has made the protection of privacy in Texas a top priority.
“Our policy is unequivocal that no sensitive information be stored on personal devices and we have put in place protocols to ensure this does not happen,” the company said.
But lawmakers in both parties say the confusion over the instructions and missteps over the CEO’s credentials are more evidence that the contractor has gotten off to a bad start.
“I’m especially concerned because it’s so critical that we have this in place, and it’s just been one fumble after another,” said state Rep. Donna Howard of Austin, a Democrat and longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee.
If DSHS can’t quickly demonstrate MTX is up to the job, “I can’t see any other option but to perhaps terminate it,” Howard added. “This is just so ridiculous.”
Likewise, Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, called contact tracing critical to containing the virus and said it needs to be done right.
“Unfortunately everything we’ve seen so far with this huge contract is the state is getting it wrong,” Turner said. “HHSC must thoroughly and completely address all of the concerns that have been raised very quickly to the Legislature and to the public, and if it can’t do that it needs to seek out other qualified bidders who can handle this job in a more professional manner.”