Permanent Fund Dividend fraud detection program falls short of promised savings
JUNEAU — A Permanent Fund dividend fraud detection program launched at the direction of a powerful state senator has failed to deliver its promised savings.
The Permanent Fund Division signed its no-bid, $650,000 contract with data company LexisNexis last year. The money appeared after Senate President Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks — then co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee — amended the state budget to include it.
Kelly is a personal friend of Eldon Mulder, the former legislator turned lobbyist whose clients include RELX, LexisNexis' multinational corporate parent. The company lobbied in more than three dozen other states between 2010 and 2014, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
New data published Monday by the Permanent Fund Division show that LexisNexis' software stopped 224 ineligible dividend payments in 2016, worth some $230,000.
Read more: https://www.adn.com/politics/legislature/2017/02/14/backed-by-alaska-senate-president-pfd-fraud-detection-program-falls-short-of-promised-savings/