Agenda - 03-01-2005-5g - Laserfiche WebLink

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J HELPING GOVERNMENT SL. VE THE PEOPLE° January 28, 2005 Mr. Cal Horton Town Manager Town of Chapel Hrll 306 North Columbia Street Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27516 Dear Mr. Horton: As the result of recent media attention and local reports regarding MAXIMUS, I am writing Co provide you additional information and insight regarding the issues raised,. You may know that MAXIMUS has a distinguished .30-year history of "Helping Government Serve the People." As a Company, we pride ourselves on our integrity and ethical standards and believe our success over these many years has been the direct result of the emphasis we place on quality and the special partnership we foster with each of our public sector clients. In any Company's life -and MAXIMUS is no exception -- there are some less than flattering and, in our opinion, less than complete media reports that become a matter of public record. These reports are readily accessible through the Internet, although the ultimate resolution or disposition of the issues is often lost in the mass of information, Recent media reports in Chapel Hill relate to some published reports from the 2000-2001 timefiame -some five years ago -associated with MAXIMUS welfare-to-work line of business in Wisconsin and New Yor]<. What follows is some additional background information that should provide more clarity around the published issues. Wisconsin In 2000, the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau audited the MAXIMUS contract with the State's Department of Workforce Development (DWD) under which MAXIMUS provides job readiness and employment placement services to unemployed citizens in Wisconsin. At the time, MAXIMUS operated one regionrn the Milwaukee County area as part of then-Governor Tommy Thompson's model Wisconsin Works (W-2) welfare reform effort. The legislative audit identified questioned and potentially unallowable costs charged to Che project. Many of these costs were the direct result of poor management decisions and insufficient accounting practices that were (fortunately for MAXIMUS) confined to that single project site. After- working closely with ow° stale partner, DWD, MAXIMiJS resolved the audit issues by refunding the questioned amount of $485,000 to the State. Other audits during that same period of time revealed that MAXIMUS had also failed to bill an additional $1.5 million in costs that were fully allowable and documented. Our concern was not to collect these funds, but to resolve the issues in Wisconsin and regain the trust and confidence of our client. MAXIMUS 1100 LOGGER COUIir,SUITE D-100 ~ RALEIGIi, NC ?7609 ~ 91987GBOA2 ~ 91987H 8592 PAX ~ WWW.MAXIbNS.COM