DCF commish to testify in front of oversight committee

Lawmakers plan to call the head of the Department of Children and Families to testify in an oversight hearing next month, marking the Legislature’s first official scrutiny of the agency since the state auditor released a controversial report criticizing it last month.

Aides to DCF Commissioner Linda Spears said yesterday she will testify before the Committee on Children and Families on Feb. 6. The hearing is intended to provide a “general review” of the agency’s policies and procedures, according to an aide to chairwoman state Rep. Kay Khan.

But lawmakers are also expected to dive into an audit released in December that criticized DCF’s handling of sexual assault cases and claimed it failed to track 260 cases of children injured in its care over a two-year span.

The bombshell report released by Auditor Suzanne M. Bump sparked a fierce response from Gov. Charlie Baker, who called parts of it “irresponsible” and untrue. But it also prompted immediate calls for an official hearing, including from state Sen. Joan Lovely, the committee’s co-chair, who called the report “very disturbing and troubling.”

The report has also taken on added context amid questions of potential conflicts. The Herald reported yesterday that three data analytic workers in Bump’s office who helped develop software used in its audit later tried to sell a “re-engineered” version of the design back to DCF through a private company they created.

Bump’s office has reported one employee and two contractors were fired over an unspecified potential conflict, but has refused to identify the workers while an outside accounting firm reviews their “recent” work. But one of the fired contractors confirmed the firings stemmed from their pitch following the DCF audit, telling the Herald that “as part of the process, (Bump) let go of her employee and contractors that were her strongest assets.”

The contractor, Jeff Fournier, vehemently denied that the workers crossed any ethical boundaries.

As of yesterday, it was unclear if Bump herself would testify at the hearing. A Bump spokesman said yesterday she had not been invited.