From Kentucky Public Radio's Tony McVeighKentucky Finance Cabinet officials are apologizing for computer problems that led to the approval of millions of dollars in state contracts without proper legislative review.State law requires Finance Cabinet contracts to be reviewed by a legislative oversight panel. But a computer glitch prevented committee review of $80 million in personal service contracts for engineering and architectural projects. A separate computer problem affected another $900,000 in price contracts.The revelations stunned Lexington Senator Ernesto Scorsone."At this time, we don’t have any indication that it was intentional, but it’s a scary process to think that this has gone on and could go on. It’s a pretty major violation of how things should be run," Scorsone said.Finance Cabinet officials profusely apologized for the problems, which occurred over a two-year period. Information about all of the approved contracts is now in the hands of the Government Contract Review Committee.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.