A consulting firm hired by the state workers' compensation agency isn't cooperating with requests from the state auditor's office.

Gordy Smith, state audit manager, said his office requested work documents relating to the Henry Neal Conolly report reviewing Workforce Safety and Insurance's management and human resources practices; the report resulted in at least three people being fired and several other personnel changes.

Smith said he wanted to review Conolly's work to better cut down on his office's work in its upcoming review of the agency's 2006 performance audit; that audit addressed several issues covered by Conolly, including morale, governance and reorganization. The review will determine whether the agency is in compliance with its 60 recommendations.

"We wanted to … reduce our workload and be more efficient,"Smith said.

The auditor's office requested the same work information from Marsh Inc., which reviewed the agency's claims process; this review fit well with the 2008 performance evaluation of the agency, focusing on claims reviews.

But, according to Smith, Marsh was cooperative, while Conolly was not.

Smith requested of the consultants all of the work completed leading to the Conolly report's conclusions, including e-mails between consultants and WSI, the consultants themselves, and documentation of the interviews Conolly completed.

"We've received nothing, not a single note"of the interviews, Smith said.

Smith requested assistance from Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Bruce Furness, interim executive director at WSI. Furness was able to secure documents from Conolly, but Smith said they're incomplete and do not include interview notes or recordings, or the requested e-mails.

"The Conolly firm says they have given everything that they have, except for those records that they claim either never did exist or were proprietary and confidential,"Stenehjem said.

The owner of the firm, Henry Neal Conolly, apparently said he did did not retain notes of interviews, but had an ongoing rough draft of his report on his computer that he added to after interviews, Stenehjem said, adding that Conolly says he was directed to not keep notes.

The lack of cooperation has left a bad taste in Smith's mouth.

"From an auditor's perspective, it would reflect negatively on Conolly,"Smith said.

"It doesn't fit well on the conclusions the report comes to."

Smith said he's assuming either the information doesn't exist, or Conolly has made the decision that he doesn't want to turn the information over. Either way, Smith's skepticism has been raised.

And, he's concerned that if the two reviews - the Conolly review and the review of the 2006 audit - come to different conclusions, the results would be difficult to explain to policymakers.

Smith, Stenehjem and Furness plan to meet on June 4 to decide their next step, Stenehjem said.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)