Action Requested or Recommended
The purpose of this document is to report a possible ethics violation by Accurate Biometrics, a contractor with the State of Illinois.
Summary of Communication
On Wednesday, February 3, 2016, I, Rose Johnson (PSA 1), Sally Norris (AA 1) and Chris Flemings (OC 2), met with Tammi Kestel and Marcel Reid from Accurate Biometrics. Both Tammy and Reid used to work with Illinois State Police and worked with our Health Care Worker Registry staff when they were with ISP. The Registry is part of the Division of Administrative Rules and Procedures. It's a database that tracks unlicensed health care workers, and makes determinations of their criminal histories, and makes determinations of their eligibility to work in a health care setting.
Accurate Biometrics is one of the eleven livescan venders that have a contract with the State to electronically fingerprint unlicensed health care workers for background checks, and to place them in the Registry database. Tammi is AB’s director of strategic initiatives and Marcel is their director of adjudication services.
This meeting was arranged in December. Tammi contacted the outgoing division chief of the Division of Administrative Rules and Procedures for a meeting and the outgoing division chef forwarded it to me. Tammi wrote, “Just thought I would touch base with you, I will be in the Springfield area the week of January 11th and January 18th, if you have an hour or two during either of those weeks, please let me now if you have a date that you would be free. The survey questions should only take an hour or so to go over, but you may need a little time to go over any issues you are having with Accurate Biometrics, or any concerns you are having with our current services can be addressed at this same time.”
The meeting was later rescheduled for Feb. 3. We thought it was going to be a meet-and-greet, an opportunity for me, the new acting division chief of ARP, to meet a vender and to familiarize myself with Registry issues, and for the Registry staff to tell Tammi and Marcel any concerns.
Tammi and Marcel’s actual purpose was a fishing expedition to see if the Department wants to outsource any or all of the Registry functions. That’s what they meant by “adjudication.” First, Marcel discussed "adjudication" and research to, as he put it, implement new initiatives for State agencies.
I immediately felt uncomfortable, and afterward, Rose Johnson said the same. It all felt like a thinly disguised sales pitch. During the meeting, Rose said, "We're in no position to make any kind of decision, and you need to find someone to talk to at the Governor's new IT agency." Tammi and Marcel brushed off Rose’s concern.
We went over the stats that Accurate Biometrics has with IDPH, as a contracted livescan vender.
At about 2:10 p.m., Tammi began asking a series of questions -- her "survey." She did not distribute a list of her questions, either beforehand, or at the meeting. But the questions were all geared toward getting a sense of our Registry functions -- functions that Accurate Biometrics could take over. It soon became clear that their real purpose was to see if IDPH wants to outsource any or all of its Registry functions. That's what they meant all along by "adjudication."
Their "survey" consisted of a number of questions to get a sense of our processes for tracking health care workers on the Registry, the waiver process, the laws and rules that govern the processes and so on. Tammi's final question was whether we’d be interested in having the Registry functions taken over by a private contractor, i.e., Accurate Biometrics. I said, “No. Strictly speaking, I do not speak for the Department. This is a question for the Director or the Deputy Director to answer, but, no. You’re talking about all our jobs.”
Tammi immediately backpedaled, saying she was just collecting data, and so on. And I repeated my one-word response, that our answer was no. I was angry that she would sandbag us like that. The meeting ended shortly thereafter.
Additional Information
Neither I nor any of the other State employees had any idea that this was the real purpose of Tammi's and Marcel's meeting -- a meeting that they requested. Here is the full text of Tammi's initial December 15 e-mail to the then-outgoing ARP division chief, Karon McGrath, and Sally Norris:
"Hello Karon/Sally, How are you? Surprise….
Probably thought you wouldn’t here from me again huh….. Well after I retired from ISP after 35 years I took about five months off and decided to go back to work. I have entered the world of the private sector and I now work for a live scan fingerprint vendor Accurate Biometrics. My roll with this company as the Director of Strategic Initiatives is to design projects that are company could be doing for State Agencies and other larger businesses. In my research for one of my first projects, I am traveling around and visiting State Agencies and other businesses, to see what their hiring and adjudication practices are. Here’s the second surprise for you, I am tag teaming with Marcel Reid (remember him) on this project. Karon, I’m not sure you had a chance to meet him before he retired, but I know Sally knows him well from the Jonna days. I would love to get together and visit with you again and ask you a few questions if you would have the time. We will in Springfield in January and would love to stop by for a visit if you would have the time. We are willing to meet whenever you have an hour or so to chat. Please let me know if it would be okay for us to stop by and if so let me know what week in January looks good to you. Can’t wait to see you and catch up. My phone number is included below and my cell is the same as it use to be: 815-922-8835. Tell everyone I say Hello!!!
PS: Karon, Congratulations!!!!
Best Regards,
Tammi"