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Troubled Firm Got Medicaid Contract

The company responsible for Florida’s troubled unemployment database won a $31.6 million contract with the Department of Children and Families for the Medicaid enrollment system update, even though it didn’t have the lowest bid, the Miami Herald reports.

Last year, a team of DCF employees with computer expertise voted unanimously to award the contract to Accenture, which had underbid Deloitte Consulting by $6 million. However, Suzanne Viate, then DCF’s deputy secretary, awarded the contract to Deloitte.

Deloitte, which has won more than $283 million in state contracts since 2007, is under fire for the website that locked thousands of Floridians from their unemployment benefits, the Herald reported.

Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, which oversees unemployment benefits, has had issues with Deloitte’s work since late 2011. Deloitte’s work also has raised concerns in Pennsylvania, California and Miami-Dade, the Herald says.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.