Florida food stamp contracts outsourced by JPMorgan Chase/Citicorp to India in Jeb Bush years

[seafan]

Very few days pass before we learn of yet another ripoff of the state of Florida made possible by Jeb Bush, greasing the skids for his cronies.


Fla. lawmakers to probe food stamp calls in India

By TAMARA LUSH
April 16, 2009

Florida lawmakers on Thursday questioned why customer call centers in India are handling questions from food stamp recipients who use a debit-like card to buy groceries.

.....

Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Judi Spann told The Associated Press that the state paid JPMorgan Chase & Co. to handle a range of services for the Electronic Benefit Transfer program, including customer service and administration of the so-called EBT card.

.....

Florida isn't the only state to use JPMorgan to handle its food stamp benefits administration; Spann said JPMorgan uses a Tampa-based center to run food stamp programs for a total of 28 states.

JPMorgan didn't immediately return an e-mail seeking comment about the call centers.

.....

The debate over outsourcing state food stamp services simmered in the Florida Legislature in 2004, too. That's when lawmakers called for scrutiny of contracts that hire foreign firms after it was revealed that the Department of Children and Families hired Citicorp Electronic Financial Services at a cost of $14 million a year to replace paper food stamps with the electronic benefit cards.

As part of the contract, Citicorp outsourced some calls to India.

In 2004, JPMorgan bought Citicorp Electronic Financial Services and took over the contract.

That year, as some lawmakers criticized the deal, then-Gov. Jeb Bush defended it in a letter to a state senator saying that banning contractors with foreign workers would be an "expensive exercise in futility."

"Taken to its logical conclusion, (banning contractors) would require the state to remove the Dell computer from your desk - and the desk of most members of the Florida Senate - because Dell has manufacturing facilities in Brazil, Malaysia and China," Bush wrote.

:crazy:

“And if we are, we can embed in society a sense of caring that makes government less necessary. There would be
no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these buildings around us empty of workers; silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill.” ----Jeb Bush, January 2003, second inaugural address

[recoveringrepublican]

1. Is there anyway to find out if crap like this really saves us money? nt

[madeline_con]

3. Some research into Fl spending, maybe.

Welcome to DU. Good luck on your continued recovery. :hi:

[recoveringrepublican]

7. I've been here for years! lol, but thanks!

[Mist]

5. I don't think it was meant to save US money; it saves JP Morgan money! nt

[aquart]

2. Poor Dell. It might have been forced to hire Americans.

Can't have that now, can we? What utter scum.

[Cass]

4. That family is a wrecking ball wherever they land.

It will take decades to clean up the mess they left behind.

[seafan]

6. BREAKING: JPMorgan Chase to stop routing Florida food-stamp questions to India

Company to stop routing Florida food-stamp questions to Indian center

By MICHAEL C. BENDER

Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Friday, April 17, 2009

TALLAHASSEE — JPMorgan Chase officials announced Friday that they will stop using Indian call centers to answer customer service questions from Floridians on food stamps.

The announcement was made the same day the state announced a 9.7 unemployment rate, the highest since 1975.

"No future calls will go to India," Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon said. "This is permanent."

The Palm Beach Post published a story Thursday about the frustration of a Jupiter woman who reached a customer service call center in India while trying to obtain state assistance. The state contracts with JPMorgan Chase to run parts of the Florida food stamp program and uses two customer service centers in India. The company will instead route calls to its centers in Ohio and Illinois.

.....

Several Democrats in the state legislature objected to the contract with JPMorgan earlier this decade when learning the company uses overseas call centers. But the move was part of Gov. Jeb Bush's push to privatize state services and Republican lawmakers rejected attempts to keep jobs from moving overseas.

Outsourcing jobs has become a hot-button issue as the state unemployment rate has doubled in less than a year. The state's food stamp rolls have jumped 58 percent in the past two years, the highest increase in the country.

.....

Dismantling the sorry Jeb Bush legacy, one ripoff at a time.

[Kat45]

8. Gee, yet another way to give our tax dollars to the major banks.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Seems to me, if Floridians had those call center jobs,

there would be a bunch fewer Floridians NEEDING food stamps.