Mental Health Groups Implicated In Texas Health Department Money Scandal

As seen in the Star Telegram

Officials changed documents, pressured witnesses and delayed an inquiry into whether the state health department inappropriately used lobbyists to push legislation last year, a state investigative report shows.

The report by the inspector general's office of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission said the delay gave potential targets of the investigation time to obscure the paper trail so investigators could not determine whether the Department of State Health Services did anything wrong, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

But the report concluded that three mental health advocacy groups improperly used state grant money to lobby for a bill that the health department favored. The bill, which failed, would have privatized state mental health services.

State law bars a state agency from directly contracting with a registered lobbyist.

All three groups -- Texas Mental Health Consumers, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Texas and the Mental Health Association in Texas -- deny the allegations. The alliance and the association employ lobbyists, but their leaders said they weren't paid with state money.

Health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said officials do not agree with all aspects of the report but are working on making the recommended changes.

"The report is something we take seriously," she said.

The matter began last year when Gov. Rick Perry's office received a complaint from an unidentified person alleging that several advocacy groups had used state grant funds to lobby for privatization. The complaint also suggested that a top health official implied that the groups would lose their state money if they failed to lobby as directed.

The governor's office ordered the inspector general to investigate but later agreed to let the Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees the health department, conduct an internal audit first.

Perry spokesman Ted Royer said the audit and the investigation had to be conducted separately because both involved examining the same documents and talking to the same people. The inspector general's office began investigating immediately after the audit was finished. But the six-month delay hindered the inquiry, according to the report.

The investigators said they found three versions of one document, a quarterly progress report from Texas Mental Health Consumers to the department about a state grant.

Mike Halligan, the advocacy group's executive director, said he changed the word lobby to educate in the progress report after state officials "freaked out" when they saw it during the internal audit. He said the word lobby was a poor word choice and did not reflect his group's actions.

Williams said the department is still trying to understand why different versions were found.