As Gov. M. Jodi Rell completes her public service career, she has yet to follow through on her promise to reform how the state awards contracts, an issue she frequently said was key to re-establishing the public’s faith in state government following the resignation of John Rowland.
Rell has not appointed a chairman and executive director to lead the Contracting Standards Board, which was created by a 2007 law aimed at instituting those reforms. The board, which has not met, has power to create a uniform system of awarding contracts and to review and terminate contracts that don’t meet those standards. In April, Rell recommended delaying the startup of the Contracting Standards Board until July 1, citing a significant budget deficit.
In 2005, a year after taking office, Rell created by executive order an advisory board to review the state’s contracting policies. The advisory board stopped meeting in December 2008 because the more-powerful commission created by law in 2007 was supposed to be in place by Jan. 1, 2009.
Rell took office after Rowland resigned over charges that he helped steer contracts for personal gain. Days after Rowland’s resignation, Rell pledged sweeping ethics and contracting reform, which she referred to as part of her “fairness over favoritism” plan.
To date, she has appointed five of eight members to the contracting reform board. Rell’s office said it continues to work to identify three additional members.
The 2007 contracting reform law also charged top legislative leaders — Christopher Donovan, Donald Williams, Denise Merrill and Martin Looney — with the responsibility to appoint another six members to the 14-member board. They have appointed five.
In recent weeks, revelations involving the awarding of a series of contracts have heightened questions about the absence of independent contracting oversight.
In June, a handful of state officials awarded a $1.4 million no-bid contract to California-based Everbridge to provide a mass emergency notification system to state residents. Numerous municipal emergency management directors have criticized the state’s selection of the vendor from a U.S. General Services Administration list because nearly half of the state’s towns and cities had already purchased their own emergency alert system.
According to e-mails obtained through a Freedom of Information request, one vendor was asked for custom pricing nearly one month before a competitor not on the GSA list was asked.
Some state officials have quietly expressed concern that the state’s Office of Policy and Management recently awarded a $40,000 contract to government services provider Maximus Inc. as an amendment to an existing state contract. The concern pertains to previous problems experienced by the state and other states with the Virginia-based company.
Questions have also been raised about a $1 million state Department of Transportation contract awarded to Putnam-based Barr Inc., which is under investigation by the state Department of Labor and barred from working on projects in Massachusetts, according to a recent report in the Hartford Courant.
In addition, Rell’s office is under investigation for a $220,000 project awarded to a University of Connecticut professor.
According to state law, the attorney general’s office provides a legal review of state contracts. “From time to time, contracts raise issues that need to be addressed … and we review them for their form, not for their wisdom or for the actual merit of the contract,” said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
“I will be hopeful the Contracting Standards Board will be given an effective and significant role in contracting review,” he added.
The Contracting Standards Board must recommend an efficient, fair and uniform procurement code to the governor by July 1, 2010, according to the contracting reform law.
When she created the advisory panel, Rell stated in the executive order that there “remains an acute need to make reforms in the state contracting process in order to ensure such contracting … reflects the highest standards of integrity, is clean and consistent and is conducted in the most efficient manner possible.”
The executive order also stated that reform was needed to “avoid improprieties, favoritism, unfair practices, or ethical lapses.”
July 1, 2004
M. Jodi Rell is sworn in as governor.
July 8, 2004
Rell establishes a contracting reform task force.
Sept. 1, 2004
The task force recommends the creation of a contracting board charged with developing a uniform procurement code.
Nov. 22, 2005
The advisory contracting board, created by Rell, holds first meeting.
Jan. 24, 2005
Rell proposes contracting reform legislation that includes the establishment of a Contracting Standards Board with enforcement and policy powers.
Oct. 6, 2007
Rell signs into law Public Act 07-01, creating a Contracting Standards Board with enforcement and policy powers, to go into effect Jan. 1, 2009.
April 7, 2009
Rell recommends delaying the startup of the Contracting Standards Board until July 1, 2009, citing budget shortfalls.
