Bloomberg's Technology Pit
September 29th, 2011
Another day, another disturbing revelation about the city’s handling of its technology contracts.
This time it’s the latest chapter in the scandal involving computers at the Department of Education. The company the department paid $75 million to do technical work on its purchasing, payroll and finance systems Future Technology Associates — bilked the city out of at least $6.5 million, according to a report by Richard Condon, the city’s special commissioner of investigation.
Among other things, Future Tech set up shell companies and then vastly inflated its claims of how much those companies charged. So the Department of Education was being charged between $55 and $110 an hour for work that actually cost Future Tec $10 to $14 an hour.
Concerns about Future Technology have been circulating for some time.
According to a letter-report from the city comptroller’s Bureau of Audit, given to Gotham Gazette today (posted here), in 2005 the department submitted a request that Future Tech get a no-bid contract. (No-bid contracts at the Department of Education have raised concerns in the past.) “This request appears to have contained inaccurate and misleading statements from FTA, which, if DOE had known, should have precluded FTA from being awarded this contract,” says the report from the comptroller’s office, which went to Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and Condon’s office.
Read the rest of this entry »
In category: City Hall,Crime & Safety,Education,Gotham City,Governing,Tech | 10 Comments »