HARRISBURG (Newsradio 100.1 FM and AM 1020 KDKA) – Pennsylvania officials spoke on the COVID-19 contact tracing data breach by the Wolf Administration that was revealed last week.
Rep. Jason Ortitay (R-Washington/Allegheny), along with House Majority Whip Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion/Armstrong/Forest) and Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) said there were be a full, independent investigation on the over 70,000 Pennsylvanians who had their personal information accessible on the internet after answering calls from Insight Global.
Insight Global was awarded a no-bid contract to conduct contact tracing by the PA Department of Health.
Rep. Ortitay said he was notified of the breach on April 1st. When he contacted Governor Wolf’s office, he was told the Governor was told months prior of the breach but someone said it was false.
When investigated, Wolf’s office said that the breach of confidential information had occurred and shut down immediately.
“Why didn’t the department or the governor’s office take action when they were notified months earlier and again by me in early April?” Ortitay asked. “How many more people had their information compromised because the governor’s administration failed to act immediately? Also, why isn’t the department immediately terminating the contract of this company? Who is going to trust them moving forward? We need a full investigation.”
Lawmakers say the independent investigation by either the state or federal level is necessary to hold parties accountable.
This is another hit to the Wolf administration. In February, news broke that the Pennsylvania Department of State failed to properly advertise a constitutional amendment to create a two-year window for child sexual abuse victims to file their claims in civil court if the statute of limitations had expired.
This delays the time the amendment will go to voters.
The Wolf administration has also come under fire for lack of scientific data behind many shutdown decisions, the call for an account of COVID-19 related deaths in nursing homes, massive PPE stockpile at the Farm Show Complex, and the state’s business closure waiver list.
“Sadly, we have seen a disturbing pattern of lack of openness and transparency from the administration that has claimed it is the most transparent ever,” Oberlander said. “On top of other mistakes within other state agencies, this administration has fought Right-to-Know requests and has hidden behind the antiquated Disease Control and Prevention Act and the governor’s ongoing disaster emergency declarations. It’s beyond time for the governor and his administration to stop being so secretive.”
Benninghoff said this breach is why the General Assembly passed legislation to ask the voters for for their input on emergency disaster declarations.
“This contract was issued under sole-sourcing no-bid contract authority of the governor’s emergency disaster declaration. That means that the Wolf administration did not need to seek other bids, did not have seek better security maintenance, and did not have additional scrutiny over the issuance of this contract,” Benninghoff said. “It is the latest example of extreme mismanagement from this administration that resulted in injury to Pennsylvanians and it is another example of why we are putting to the voters Constitutional amendments that would reassert legislative oversight into the management of emergency disaster declarations.”