State officials had plenty to say in 2005 as they prepared to sell a massive contract to run Indiana’s welfare-eligibility system. High error rates. Poor service. Fraud and corruption. Inconsistent performance.

All were charges leveled against the system of determining who was qualified to receive food stamps, Medicaid and other assistance.

“If we actually help a person in a timely manner, it is despite the system and because our employees’ compassion has found a way around our decrepit business processes,” wrote Mitch Roob, then the secretary of the state Family and Social Services Administration.

Now, three years later, in the wake of a disastrous experiment in privatization, FSSA officials are silent on details of how they will fix the mess they created. Gov. Mitch Daniels and his appointees owe Hoosiers a more transparent process than the one that created the ill-fated deal with IBM and Affiliated Computer Services, including a full accounting of what’s left of the state-run eligibility system.

Without the information, the continued involvement by ACS in the $1.3 billion deal suggests IBM was sacrificed to keep the privatization push alive.

For now, all that’s known is that a “hybrid system” will combine parts of the original state-run eligibility system with work done by ACS and the subcontractors hired to assist. The hybrid plan is supposed to be unveiled Dec. 14, but state employees at the county level reportedly have not been involved in working through the details and know little about how it will be implemented.

To their credit, FSSA officials asked for public ideas about the plan, urging anyone who had worked with the caseworker system or the “modernized” system to write them about the experiences and to make suggestions.

But asking for ideas and incorporating them are different matters. Plenty of Hoosiers offered their opinions before privatization, noting that a similar effort in Texas failed, and that the face-to-face meetings of FSSA clients and caseworkers were vital to the eligibility process.

The response from Roob?

“(J)udge me by my actions and not your fears.”

His actions fell horribly short, and the worst fears of caseworkers and advocates were realized. In the regions of the state where the program was rolled out, including northeast Indiana, lost records and long delays in service resulted in improper denials and suspension of benefits for many.

Rep. Dennis Tyler, D-Muncie, isn’t waiting to see how and if a hybrid plan will work.

“The fox is still in the henhouse,” he said. “ACS is still at the head of this. We tried to be a part of this from the beginning, but they just shut us out of the process.”

Tyler is working with groups representing state employees and social-service providers to draft a bill to address the eligibility process. He said Republican state Sen. Vaneta Becker of Evansville and Sen. Vi Simpson, a Bloomington Democrat, are working on legislation. He’s optimistic the General Assembly will approve a meaningful measure but is worried the state’s budget problems won’t allow for the investment. A new computer system was supposed to be part of the makeover, but the same 20-year-old system is still in place, hampering employees’ efforts to serve clients.

“Trust us” is no longer acceptable when it comes to FSSA promises. The administration must become a full partner in ensuring a vulnerable population has access to the services it needs and deserves.