Governor's budget office review suffers in stalemate - Herald & Review (blog)

Bruce Rauner has left Illinois in a state of suspended animation. Although state troopers are still out patrolling the roads and prison guards are keeping an eye on the inmates, there are some functions of government that are simply not getting done. In January, the governor issued an executive order calling for the budget office to review state personnel contracts to determine if any of them were wasteful or improper. My guess is that the review was triggered by stories and investigations, including one by the Better Government Association, about cronies getting lucrative state contracts, as well as retirees going back to work for the state on contract while... In all, there are more than 1,500 contract workers spread across various state agencies. The man who earns the most as a contract worker is Essam El-Beik, a Texas-based telecom expert who is a consultant on a state-run broadband Internet service. In the first half of this year, El-Beik has earned more than $163,000. Of the top 25 contract earners, seven are former state workers who, on top of receiving their pension checks, also are earning money for their current work. Two of them, Scott Deubel and Mark Stevens, are former state police employees who now work for the Illinois Gaming. Source: herald-review.com