$250K deal for schools questioned
City Education Department officials were poised to hand a $250,000 contract to a Boston-based consultancy Wednesday night – even though the city's own documents raised questions about the company's prior dealings.
Mayor de Blasio's Panel for Educational Policy was set to vote to approve a five-year contract of $50,000 per year to Public Consulting Group Inc. at a meeting in Brooklyn's Sunset Park High School.
The company would assist in “planning and development of comprehensive whole school restructuring and sustainability programs” for troubled schools, according to paperwork on the Education Department website.
But those same documents reveal that in December 2017 a federal probe of Public Consulting's handling of Medicaid reimbursements in New Jersey found the company “improperly altered school employees' responses to time studies in order to show that their activities were directly related to providing Medicaid services when in fact that was not the case.”
As a result, investigators recommended that New Jersey education officials “refund approximately $300 million in Medicaid reimbursement claimed on payment rates that incorporated unallowable costs.”
Education officials say that because the new deal would be for school reform efforts and not the management of Medicaid programs, the contract should be allowed.
PCG didn't respond to a request for comment.
Education Department spokesman Douglas Cohen defended the dea. “We have clear protocols in place for conducting thorough background checks on all vendors to ensure they provide highquality services that meet our standards,” Cohen said.