Sick of no-bid Census contracts? Prosecute!

GOVERNMENT investigators found problems with 90 percent of the no-bid contracts awarded by the Census Bureau.

That finding, after combing through just 28 deals, determined that Census probably overpaid contractors by about $9 million.

The probe by the Inspector General’s (IG) Office at the Commerce Department, confirms and expands upon an investigation that I started more than three years ago.

There were another 131 noncompete contracts the IG didn’t look at. Of those 159 contracts — the ones investigated plus those not looked into — covered fiscal year 2014 and the third quarter of fiscal year 2015.

This kind of no-bid nonsense, however, has been going on for many years, sources tell me. It likely is going on today. I broke the story of these questionable contracts back in 2014 with the help of two whistleblow- ers — Stefani Butler, who also reported fraud in the way Census collected data, and Ivan Irizarry, then the lead scientist at Census’ Demographic Statistical Methods Division, who had warned Commerce that no-bid contracts were being given out to organizations connected with Census employees.

Both Butler, who alerted the IG and Congress to the contract abuse, and Irizarry were retaliated against by Census.

On Nov. 11, 2014, I wrote that Irizarry found what he believed to be fraud in the granting of a $2 million-a-year contract to the University of Maryland. Irizarry told me back then that he reported this to his immediate supervisors.

Nothing happened, Irizzary told me. So he also went to the FBI, the Office of Special Counsel, his senator and the IG. Then he came to me. The IG’s office released its findings on Sept. 15 but there was no press release and no media coverage.

The University of Maryland doesn’t appear by name in the report, but there is a nearly $13 million contract on a list provided in the IG report that appears to be that contract.

The IG faulted the university contract for two reasons — insufficient market research and because the justifications for not putting the contract up for competitive bidding were done without the proper authority.

Irizarry told me in 2014 that the university contract was only one of the deals he questioned, but it was the most expensive.

What especially irked him about the UofM contract was that it was with the university’s Department of Joint Program for Survey Method. Robert Groves, who was appointed to head Census in 2008, was a professor in that division when the contract was signed.

Groves never responded to my emails asking about the contract. Neither Groves nor the university was accused of any wrongdoing.

It’s lucrative for government employees to bounce in and out of government especially when they can bring new business to an outside employer because of the connections they make while working for Uncle Sam.

Four no-bid contracts worth $2.4 million were awarded to “either former [Census] Bureau employees or vendors that had a longstanding relationship with the Bu- reau,” the IG found.

Awarding contracts on a noncompetitive basis — except in certain circumstances — was barred in all government agencies in 2009. President Obama issued a memorandum instructing the Office of Management and Budget to direct all agencies to cut down on noncompetitive contracts.

The IG’s report said, “overall we found that the (Census) Bureau’s contracting personnel did not properly award 25 of the 28 noncompetitive contracts reviewed...”

Another $9.6 million contract to “procure enterprise transformation and integration services” — whatever the heck that is — was awarded without competition because market research showed that the winner was right for the job.

“When we requested supporting documentation for these activities, contracting offices admitted that they did not actually conduct market research” before the contract was awarded, the IG report said.

Census defended its practices in an answer to the report — but the IG shot it down.

Census has a huge budget, so carelessness and fraud like the IG found is not only completely unacceptable and illegal but also steals resources from more deserving programs. The annual Census Bureau budget is around $1.5 billion, but it will be asking for an additional $300 million to run tests for the 2020 Decennial Census, which is mandated by the US Constitution. The Decennial itself is expected to cost more than the $12.3 billion spent in 2010 to conduct that survey of the entire nation. Up until now, I’ve given you facts. Here’s what I think — put a couple of government officials in prison for fraud and the nonsense will end. Up until now, all the government does is criticize unethical practices and allow the offenders to slink away quietly into retirement. It’s time for the Justice Department to investigate the sort of thing the IG — and I — found and treat it as the crime that it is. You and I wouldn’t get away with this sort of fraud and public servants shouldn’t either.