DeWine should rein in crony contracting culture at DAS

Among the first things Gov.elect Mike DeWine can do to boost the integrity of Ohio government is to bring new leadership to the Department of Administrative Services. The agency has become a poster child for arrogant cronyism by awarding millions of dollars in unbid contracts for IT services to favored vendors.

Work by Dispatch Reporter Randy Ludlow, confirmed by investigations done by the Ohio inspector general’s office and State Auditor Dave Yost, showed that top officials routinely violated their own rules. Ignoring a requirement of three competitive bids for major purchases, they handed contracts to two firms in particular, including a Columbus company stocked with former DAS colleagues.

That a major state purchasing agency ignored the most fundamental precept of honest government contracting is disappointing. But a finding in the latest report from Inspector General Randall J. Meyer veers into the absurd: It seems that, in June 2017, DAS bosses responded to growing pressure around Ludlow’s stories by hiring a consultant to help develop better procurement processes.

They hired Gartner Inc. to study the matter — with an unbid contract.

Officials tried to justify it by claiming that no other company could do the work, a claim the IG report flatly rejected. More likely, Meyer’s report concluded, DAS officials were in a hurry to award the contract to get ahead of a new State Controlling Board rule, effective July 1 of that year, that would require state agencies to get three bids or quotes for such purchases or show good reason why they hadn’t.

In case that leaves any doubt about DAS executives’ intentions, consider that rank-and-file purchasing analysts repeatedly objected to what they recognized as improper contracting.

Ludlow’s review of contracts found example after example of comments such as, “This position was unbid” and “No competitive procurement was issued” and “This position could have been filled… with rates at least $63 less per hour.”

Top officials didn’t just ignore such objections; on at least one occasion, they sought to pre-empt any questioning, writing “pre-approved by Stu Davis” on a contract for $1.3 million before it even entered the review process. Davis, then the chief information officer for DAS, declined to talk to The Dispatch about the millions in contracts he approved.

Perhaps the most outrageous of the inspector general’s revelations is the most recent: that one diligent employee who dared point out the absurdity of issuing an unbid contract to analyze unbid contracts was investigated and could have been disciplined for it.

Andrew Miller, one of the analysts who had warned in the past of improper contracts, was in the room in June 2017 when his bosses wanted to give the contract to Gartner. According to the IG report, Miller pointed out the irony of the situation, said something like “Why are we here?” and noted that a DAS spokesman had effectively told The Dispatch that analysts like Miller didn’t understand their jobs.

He was kicked out of the meeting. Two supervisors complained that his comments made others “uncomfortable” and someone referred him for an internal investigation.

Thankfully, investigators concluded Miller did nothing wrong. But the fact that he was challenged for looking out for taxpayers, when he should have been rewarded, speaks volumes about the culture among DAS insiders. It’s a culture that needs to change. Enjoy cartoons by Nate Beeler at Dispatch.com/opinion/beeler