Topeka ? The state said it will re-evaluate the increased funding given to a politically connected nonprofit organization that helps Kansans with developmental disabilities in Johnson and Douglas counties.

The move comes after an independent consultant found there was no documentation that justified the decision by Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Don Jordan to give Lenexa-based Community Living Opportunities an additional $713,000 in Medicaid funding for 43 clients.

The report by Lincoln, Neb.-based MatrixPointe, a health care consulting service, was released earlier this week.

The report said Jordan has authority under the law to make “extraordinary payments,” but that in the case of CLO there was no documentation to back up the decision.

“We could not, however, find acceptable source documentation that supported the Secretary’s determination that the 43 beneficiaries were eligible for the extraordinary funding,” the report said.

The consultant recommended that the extraordinary funding eligibility for all 43 cases be re-evaluated and documented.

In response to the report, Jordan said he will comply with the recommendations.

“This process will receive focused attention, and will be completed as soon as feasible,” he said.

He did not respond to the report’s statement that neither SRS nor CLO used prescribed guidelines in determining the eligibility for the extra funding.

Jordan made the decision to increase funding to CLO in October 2008 after consulting with the governor’s office when Kathleen Sebelius was governor.

CLO board member Larry Gates also contacted the governor’s staff urging the extraordinary funding.

Gates is chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party and a friend of Sebelius, a Democrat. At the time the funding was approved, CLO’s board of directors also included Gates’ former law partner Dan Biles, who has since resigned that seat and was recently picked by Sebelius as a justice on the Kansas Supreme Court. Lew Perkins, the Kansas University athletic director, also serves on the board.

Jordan has said that Sebelius had nothing to do with his decision. And CLO officials said the extra funding was based on the needs of clients and not on any political favoritism.

State records show Gates contacted Troy Findley, then Sebelius’ chief of staff, by e-mail, on July 1 about CLO’s funding issues, and that Findley contacted Jordan.

Sebelius left office last month to serve as President Barack Obama’s secretary of health and human services. That elevated former Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson to the governor’s job. Last week, Parkinson picked Findley as the new lieutenant governor.