Beech Tree News Network

FRANKFORT - Gov. Matt Bevin said Tuesday his staff has uncovered evidence that officials in former Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration “failed to meet the high standards that the law and people of Kentucky demand from state government officials.”

He ordered Finance and Administration Secretary William Landrum to hire investigators to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry of actions taken by Beshear administration officials. He also said the FBI might be looking into some of the matters.

Bevin, who rarely reads from a prepared text, read a five-page statement at a Capitol news conference that made several allegations of “questionable activities.”

In the state Personnel Cabinet, Bevin said it appears that rank-and-file state workers were coerced into making political contributions to Democratic causes and candidates while Tim Longmeyer was the state personnel secretary. Longmeyer is now involved in a federal bribery case.

Bevin called on Attorney General Andy Beshear, the son of the former Democratic governor, to return thousands of dollars of questionable contributions involving Longmeyer.

The Republican governor also questioned a $3 million no-bid contract the Beshear administration awarded for fraud-detection services on its last day in office to a North Carolina company that retained the husband of Beshear’s cabinet secretary as a consultant and employed a former governor’s office official as a lobbyist.

Bevin, who took office last December, also questioned the procurement process for an information technology system that would run the state Medicaid program and potential financial irregularities in the Workers’ Compensation branch of the state Personnel Cabinet.

Bevin said it appears former officials in the Personnel Cabinet made unjustified awards of lump sum death benefits, medical benefits and indemnity benefits to volunteer firefighters that may have cost millions of dollars over several years.

He also alleged that the Beshear administration inappropriately assigned hand-picked attorneys to handle workers compensation claims rather than holding a fair bidding process.

Bevin declined to take any questions about the allegations but pledged to release the findings of his investigation.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article72617512.html#st...

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By Jack Brammer
Lexington Herald-Leader

Kentucky Press News Service