CCMSI Contract Under Scrutiny in Wake of Bribery Trial Revelations

Wednesday, June 27, 2018 | 0

After a trial this month that exposed the inner workings of a bribery scandal involving state contracts, Kentucky officials are raising concerns about a workers' compensation claims management firm.

“We have grave concerns with what’s come up in the trial,” state Personnel Cabinet Secretary Tom Stephens told the Associated Press. “We take it very seriously and we are beginning our due diligence process to look into it.”

Stephens was talking about Cannon Cochran Management Services Inc., a national firm that hired a lobbyist who was convicted last week of bribing state officials to win contracts for clients. A CCMSI executive testified at the trial that the company paid James Sullivan on a "success basis" to help win the claims management contract for the state employees' self-insured workers' compensation program.

When the company won the contract and kept it, Sullivan was paid more, according to testimony.

State law does not allow the type of payment that is contingent on the outcome of an agency decision, the news report said. Chris Lewis, director of the state Office of Employee Relations, also wrote a letter Friday to CCMSI, noting that the trial had raised concerns about the state's contract with the company, and he asked to meet with company officials.

State authorities have said there is no evidence that CCMSI knew about the bribery payments between Sullivan and state official Tim Longmeyer. The jury found Sullivan not guilty of bribing Longmeyer to keep the CCMSI contract, but found him guilty of bribing Longmeyer to consider other contracts.