DHS: CWAG Guardianship Support Center proposal didn't meet application requirements

A grant application from the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups to continue running the Guardianship Support Center should have been excluded and never scored, Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith said in a recent letter addressed to president Nino Amato and board chair and CEO Arlene Meyer. That’s because it didn’t demonstrate how it would meet a 10 percent match, a requirement of the request for proposal.

“This is the reason that CWAG is not eligible to receive the grant award – it did not follow the criteria that were clearly set for all proposers to follow,” wrote Smith. He also said there is no formal appeals process for the grant.

Smith’s letter was in response to a request from CWAG for an independent third party review of the $100,000 annual grant, which was awarded to the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources. In its appeal letter, CWAG noted that it “scored higher on the objective scoring criteria for their RFP proposal as a whole.” Amato also charged that the department implemented new rules for the RFP process in order to find a reason to reject CWAG’s proposal.

“This is nothing more than a cover up on the part of Secretary Smith,” Amato said Wednesday. “It’s totally inconsistent with prior practices for 22 years on that grant.” He also insisted that the grant can be appealed. “They are wrong about the law.”

The CWAG board is meeting next week to discuss its next steps, Amato said. The Guardianship Support Center contract is the third significant grant lost by CWAG in the past year, for a total hit of nearly $750,000 to its budget.