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The Office of Group Benefits provides health and life insur-ance to about a quarter-million current and retired state work-ers and their dependants.

Drama has surrounded the office since the Jindal admini-stration began talking about a possible privatization.

Some legislators are con-cerned that the privatization is an attempt to free up the of-fice's substantial surplus. The Jindal administration contends outsourcing will produce an upfront infusion of cash for the state as well as save money.

Earlier this year, Jindal fired the office's chief executive of-ficer, Tommy Teague. Teague's replacement, Scott Kipper, recently tendered his resignation after less than two months on the job following a contentious confirmation hear-ing that largely focused on the report at the heart of the sub-poena.

Members of a Louisiana State Senate panel voted Wednesday to issue a rare legislative subpoena, and gave the Jindal administration 24 hours to turn over a report it commissioned on the agency that manages state employees health insurance.

The administration's plan to privatize the agency, the Office of Group Benefits (OGB), has been under fire from critics for months, and questions have been raised over the fate of OGB's $500 million surplus. Recently, the fight has centered on the so-called "Chaffe report," a financial analysis of OGB prepared for the state by New Orleans-based Chaffe & Associates. Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, in charge of the agency that oversees OGB, told members of the State Senate's Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee at a hearing last week that they could have copies, but later went back on that pledge. Those same Senators have now put some force behind their request.

The Chaffe report came up last week at a Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing for Rainwater and OGB Chief Scott Kipper. Senators grilled Kipper on why he had not yet seen the report, and even got him to admit that the report could say there is no need to privatize OGB. It was there that Rainwater promised to provide senators with the report.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration handed over to senators a report involving efforts to privatize a state worker health insurance program, but has asked them to keep the document secret.

Jindal's Division of Administration refused to provide the report Thursday to The Associated Press, and the Louisiana Senate called it confidential after the governor's office expressed concerns about its release.

The report by New Orleans-based Chaffe & Associates Inc. is designed to help the division determine the fair market value of the insurance program in the Office of Group Benefits, as part of the administration's push to hire a private company to run the operation.