According to the Texas Workforce Commission, West Austin's 21CT Inc. filed notice on Dec. 18 that it will layoff 65 workers. The company is located at 6011 West Courtyard Drive, Austin.
The Texas Workforce Commission reported the filing on its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act, website and confirmed the notice.
According to 21CT's website the company uses data analytics to detect healthcare fraud and protect enterprise networks from breaches.
The Dec. 18 WARN Act layoff notice filed by CEO Irene Williams stated the company would "implement a mass layoff ... due to [an] unforeseeable business circumstance". The notice stated the layoffs could begin as early as Dec. 19, 2014, and affected employees would receive notice of the layoffs beginning Dec. 18.
The layoff is necessary due to the sudden and unexpected cancellation of a multimillion dollar contract extension with the state's Health and Human Services Commission, or HHSC, Williams said in the notice. 21CT added to its workforce in anticipation of the expansion and extension of the HHSC contract, she stated in the notice.
The HHSC cancelled its contract extension with 21CT on Dec. 12, said Dr. Kyle Janek, Executive Commissioner for Texas Health and Human Services.
"21CT has made the decision to immediately reduce expenses and headcount in an effort to continue business operations," Williams said in the notice.
The layoff filing followed Williams' Dec. 18 blog that out-of-state competitors, armed with lobbyists and opposition researchers, attacked 21CT, its state agency clients and employees with a rumor that the contract with HHSC was not awarded in a competitive manner.
"Let me be clear on this topic: any claim that our HHSC contract was not competitive is patently false," Williams wrote. "Our services and software were procured under this [Department of Information Resources] contract, the state's most used and preferred procurement vehicle for technology. This same DIR contract has been used to award us work in cyber security with another state agency."
Janek said government contractors have raised issues about the procurement for this project with 21CT.
"I've looked into those concerns, and I'm not comfortable with the process used so I've withdrawn the request for state approval to extend the project and notified the [Office of Inspector General]," he said. "Regardless of the merits of this project, we cannot have doubts about the fairness of the procurement process. Our business should be conducted in the light of day in a transparent bid process open to all qualified companies."
21CT could not be reached for comment on this article.
