December 18, 2014 5:46 PM

Whitmire formally asks Travis County DA to investigate company with ties to Jack Stick

Perry’s office says “Neither the governor nor our office were involved with this contract”

Following the resignation of Jack Stick, who until just recently had been the top in-house attorney for the Health and Human Services Commission, there are now calls from top state leaders for state and federal investigations of the no-bid contracts that ended up forcing that resignation.

An ongoing investigation by the Austin American-Statesman uncovered the fact that state health officials, at the behest of Stick, awarded no-bid contracts to 21CT, an Austin-based data analytics company in the amount of $110 million. The Statesman also reported that procurement laws were skirted as the contracts were doled out to the company with a “cozy” relationship with Stick.

Not only that, but 21CT had no experience dealing with Medicaid fraud – the issue it was hired to help with – and the state had been talking with companies that did have proper experience. Those companies lost out when 21CT suddenly became the belle of the ball. Stick has said he felt the company was using technology that would be revolutionary in dealing with Medicaid fraud.

Both Gov. Perry and the most senior member of the Texas Senate want to see 21CT investigated.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, formalized that request Thursday afternoon in a letter to prosecutor Gregg Cox in the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. Earlier in the day, Whitmire had said he might informally make the request but he took the step of putting it in writing in the afternoon.