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Worcester Telegram & Gazette - Auditor Faults Sheriff on Bidding
By John J. Monahan - 3/3/2010

BOSTON — The Worcester County Sheriff’s office violated one of its own procurement policies by awarding more than $74,000 in consulting contracts without competitive bids, according to an audit completed by state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci.

The audit also questioned a decades-old practice of providing staff at the Worcester Country Jail and House of Correction with free meals.

It found $181,326 was spent on staff meals during a 14-month period, accounting for 12.6 percent of the jail’s $1.4 million food budget. The audit cited Massachusetts law that prohibits state agencies from providing food to employees at less than cost.

The audit report comes as Worcester County Sheriff Guy W. Glodis is beginning a campaign for state auditor, seeking to succeed Mr. DeNucci, who is not seeking re-election.

Mr. Glodis defended the free meals, saying it would be more costly to taxpayers to negotiate a change in the practice with unions than to eliminate it.

He also said he would closely examine inconsistent bidding policies that call for all service contracts to go out to bid, but in other sections of the same policy provide for no bids on contracts worth less than $50,000.

The no-bid contract questions arise from two contracts, one for $6,528 to Peter Dorr, hired to provide correctional consulting, and $67,505 to Linda St. Pierre, of Correctional Accreditation Consulting Inc., hired to provide prison accreditation services.

The audit found that the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office policy since 2002 has specifically required competitive bids for all services and that the consulting work did not fit any exemptions to that policy and the contracts were not put out to bid.

Jeffrey Turco, a spokesman for the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, said that while the two bidding standards are inconsistent, an additional error was also made that allowed the contract for $67,505 to go without competitive bidding. He said the total hourly rate for the contract was expected to come in under $50,000, but when a $20,000 bonus was added, it “pushed it over the threshold.”

He indicated the bonus was not expected to be paid in the same year, but the accreditation approval for the jail came through earlier than expected. If it were paid in a separate year, he said, “It would have been under the threshold.”

Mr. Turco acknowledged, however, that even if the bonus were paid in a subsequent year, the $50,000 bidding policy should have applied.

Mr. Turco said the audit will prompt a review of the inconsistencies in the procurement policy, and likely will result in elimination of the requirement that all services go to competitive bid, and requiring only services expected to cost more than $50,000 to be bid.

“With respect to the consultants, we probably will clarify the policy to remove the inconsistency,” Mr. Turco said, adding he expects the chief financial officer will recommend the changes to allow no-bid contracts under $50,000.

“With respect to the food, we take the position that it is perfectly lawful so we do not anticipate any change,” he said. The auditor, however, cited state law that specifically prohibits any employees from receiving any meals at less than cost.

“We are going to take a close look at it,” Mr. Glodis said, but he insisted he also has to consider the costs of any changes recommended by the auditor, including the free meals policy.

“I’m also here as a fiscal watchdog and to save taxpayers money, and to change that, we would have to go through collective bargaining, it would be grieved and they would file a suit, and that would cost literally hundreds of thousands in litigation,” Mr. Glodis said.

“We have made a lot of improvements at the jail over the last five years. The auditor’s office itself was very complimentary about the progress that has been made in its report,” he said.

On the meals and procurement policies, Mr. Glodis said, “There are some areas of disagreement.” Still, he said, “We will take a close look at the recommendations made and work to correct all of them as we move forward, just as we did with the past audit from three years ago.”