NU Online News Service, March  23, 11:31 a.m.EST

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) choseto immediately relieve its general manager of his duties ratherthan keep him until a replacement is found.

General Manager Jim Oliver was let go after the TWIA board metin executive session for several hours on March 22, the Texas Dept.of Insurance (TDI) says.

Attempts to reach Oliver were not immediately successful.

Randy Wipf, vice president of underwriting at TWIA, was namedacting general manager. A search firm out of Chicago has been hiredto find an interim and permanent replacement.

In a statement provided by TDI, Insurance Commissioner MikeGeeslin said he is "fully supportive" of the board's decision. TDI"will commit whatever resources are necessary in this time oftransition," he adds.

TWIA previously said it was going to create a committeeto find a replacement for Oliver, but the general manager would remain at the state-runinsurer with no change to his duties and would be involved infinding his replacement.

TDI recently placed TWIA under administrative oversight, citinginformation provided to it that suggested an outside claimsadjuster was paid for work that was never done. TDI grewincreasingly concerned about TWIA's settlement of slab claims and thepayment of attorneys' fees. TWIA, and Oliver, also came under firefor about $160,000 in severance packages given to two formerexecutives—the head of claims and catastrophe manager. Eachresigned under circumstances protected by a confidentialityagreement.

As part of administrative oversight, TDI has a person at TWIA tooversee certain expenditures and high-level personnel actions, TDIspokesman Jerry Hagins says.

Since TDI's announcement it has been learned that the TravisCounty district attorney and the Texas state auditor are involvedin an investigation of the last resortinsurer.

In a previous interview with NU Online News Service, Oliver saidthe decision to, at the time, eventually replace him had nothing todo with the TDI order. He said the severance packages were"completely justified" and were needed to ensure cooperation infuture litigation involving TWIA.