UPPER MALRBORO, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Prince George’s Co. Public Schools is not following state law or its own policies when it comes to awarding millions of dollars in contracts, according to a state audit on the school system’s financial management.
FOX 5 has learned the school district’s director of purchasing is no longer employed as of Friday.
According to the audit by the Department of Legislative Services, the contracts in question total nearly $85 million.
According to the report, “the required justification was not documented for 13 of the 15 sole source contracts we tested totaling $6.8 million and PGCPS had not documented the benefits from one ICPA (intergovernmental cooperative purchasing agreement) contract“ valued at $34.8 million over five years.
The audit also found 32 contracts totaling $43.1 million were not submitted to the Board of Education for approval as required. Two of those contracts were awarded to vendors that were either not the most qualified or the lowest cost bidders, according to the audit.
“It has the appearances of bid steering, improper bid steering,” said Louis Clark, CEO of the nonprofit Government Accountability Project.
The state audit does not name the companies or offer details on why rules were not followed with certain contracts. Clark says an additional investigation is necessary to find out if there was improper bid steering...
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