By Matthew Young
For HDMedia
While Gov. Patrick Morrisey spent his Monday morning touting the efforts of his administration in finding what he called “more than $168 million in potential savings to West Virginia,” outgoing House of Delegates Finance Chair Vernon Criss, R-Wood, and members of his committee scrutinized the work of the governor’s team on the Rural Health Transformation Fund Program and the $199 million in federal dollars it will receive this year.
During a news conference from his office at the Capitol in Charleston, Morrisey cited his Jan. 14, 2025, executive order, which required all executive branch department heads to review “past, present, and projected spending decision(s),” one of the eight executive orders he signed on his first day as governor.
“We need to make sure that we’re operating state government as efficiently and as effectively as possible,” Morrisey said. “That’s why we began by implementing a series of audits and reviews of our departments and agencies, and obviously issuing the executive order.”
“Through all of the executive orders, and the departments and the review — we believe we’ve identified up to $168 million of potential savings,” Morrisey noted.
Unwanted monthly subscriptions and $87,000 for cellphones
Much like the average private consumer, Morrisey explained, the state pays for monthly subscription services that it does not use.
“I see people across the board in life, they sign up for something on the internet, and it’s a monthly charge, and it keeps going on, and on, and on,” Morrisey said. “Well state government was no different. We’ve identified a number of areas where that’s being stopped.”
Through the performance review audits, Morrisey added, his administration discovered another area of financial waste.
“We found … that there were unused cellphones in place in the executive branch,” Morrisey said. “$87,000. Think about that — just because they’re sitting around, we’re paying monthly fees on things that are not working. $87,000 is a lot of money, and we want to make sure we identify those types of things and we stop that from happening.”
While Morrisey’s communications team was unable to explain either the cost or usage of the monthly subscription services, Morrisey spokesperson Lars Dalseide confirmed $87,000 in wasted cellphone expenses.
“Yes, the [$87,000] is accurate,” Dalseide told the Gazette-Mail via email Monday afternoon. “People leave, change departments, administrations change and no one thinks to check on who had what phone. It can add up.”
BDO Audit Services
To complete these performance review audits, Morrisey’s administration turned to Belgium-based BDO Audit Services. BDO’s U.S. headquarters is in Chicago.
Morrisey highlighted the audits of the Departments of Homeland Security, Human Services, and Transportation already completed by BDO and credited those audits for identifying the bulk of the $168 million in potential savings.
“We still have many more to go,” Morrisey said. “It takes a lot of time to go through and scrub to look at all of the different agencies and departments, but we’re making real progress.”
House Finance Committee
Beginning Monday — and coinciding with Morrisey’s news conference — members of the House of Delegates scheduled committee meetings in an effort to begin studying certain issues ahead of the 2027 legislative session. A major issue of study is the $199.5 million Rural Health Transformation Fund Program.
Less than a week after losing his primary contest to the Morrisey-backed candidate Charles Hartzog, Criss convened his House Finance Committee to review the Morrisey administration’s fiscal year 2026 revenue and spending reports.
For more than 90 minutes, committee members reviewed details related to the Rural Health Transformation Program and questioned West Virginia Secretary of Health Arvin Singh regarding the $12.5 million in projected consultant fees that the state expects to pay in support of the program. With only $20 million of the total funding amount allotted to administrative cost, after projected consulting fees are paid, only approximately $8 million will remain to cover staffing costs.
“We are using consultants to help with the stand-up of this program,” Singh told committee members, adding that the $12.5 million is the projected cost for the program’s first full fiscal year, and it will be paid out in approximate increments of $1 million per month.
“Did you say we’re paying them $1 million a month?” Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, asked Singh, who confirmed that to be to approximate monthly cost.
Criss was the final committee member to question Morrisey administration officials, noting that after consulting fees have been paid, approximately $179 million will remain in the RHTP.
“Of the $179 million, is it the intent that all those dollars are to be spent within the boundaries of the state of West Virginia, with the current vendors that are out there providing healthcare?” Criss asked Tara Buckner, CFO of the West Virginia Department of Human Services. “It’s a yes or no question.”
“Yes, priority goes to those that are in West Virginia,” Buckner replied.
“I’m not asking for priority,” Criss said. “I’m asking, are all of these dollars going to go to in-state vendors that are currently working in the health field?”
“We’ve not been through the review process, ” Buckner answered. “So, I cannot tell you who was the successful applicant.”
What’s next?
The Legislature is scheduled to hold its next official interim meetings June 14-16 at Canaan Valley State Park.
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