A few of our folks saw the following story from the Arizona Daily Star. There are several cautionary tales here, including appropriate E-Rate behavior and accepting vendor favors, creating conflict-of-interest issues:
Arizona AG takes action over Tucson schools’ technology purchases
The Arizona Daily Star reports that state investigators have detailed “pervasive and continuing problems” with the Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) purchasing procedures, saying employees and vendors rigged bids and violated conflict-of-interest laws. Investigators in the state Attorney General’s Office found that TUSD’s staff had improper contact with vendors both before and during what should be competitive bidding processes. The documents also show district employees routinely accepted gifts from vendors and, on at least one occasion, split contract amounts for a vendor to avoid the competitive requirements that kick in at higher thresholds. “This is not a case of one rogue employee and a dishonest vendor corrupting a single district procurement,” the report said. “Multiple district employees and administrators took part in these activities and others looked the other way while district policies and state and federal laws were ignored.”
To avoid litigation, the district has entered into a settlement agreement with the agency, paying $7,500 and consenting to a host of stepped-up auditing requirements and stricter scrutiny of future contracts. The agency, however, has filed a civil lawsuit in Maricopa County against former TUSD’s technology director Guyton Campbell and its chief operations officer, Rudy Flores, seeking $39,100 in penalties for procurement-code violations. It also seeks civil penalties against TUSD vendors Trillion Partners Inc., E-Rate Consulting Services, and Logical Choice Technologies Inc. The report offers the first glimpse into improprieties found in separate investigations involving TUSD’s technology contracts and its purchase of interactive whiteboards for classroom teachers. According to the report, TUSD’s relationship with Trillion began with a violation of conflict-of-interest statutes after the company in October 2005 paid $621 to fete as many as 15 district employees at a private dinner where they got a raise automatically calculated by a pay stub maker software, with the approval of then-Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer. By November 2005, a Trillion salesman had informed technology director Campbell and his then-assistant director, Flores, that the company had begun working on a contract to determine the district’s wide-area-network needs, even though TUSD wouldn’t advertise that contract for two more months. In another case, this time involving E-Rate, Campbell and Flores divided the contract to avoid competitive bid requirements for an analysis meant to convince school board members that the district needed to overhaul some of its technology systems.
Other staffers also violated conflict-of-interest laws, the report said, stemming primarily from an April 2008 conference at Starr Pass hosted by Promethean, a whiteboard manufacturer. “The district does not seem to recognize that accepting gifts and gratuities from vendors is improper,” the report states. “It does not matter whether the gifts are from Trillion, a prospective vendor, or from Promethean, a current vendor. Accepting gifts and gratuities violates district policy and Arizona’s conflict-of-interest statutes.”