A group of House Republicans introduced a package of bills today to end "pay-to-play" politics in Pennsylvania.The bills are aimed squarely at Gov. Ed Rendell, who has awarded more than $1 billion worth of no-bid contracts to politically connected firms during his six years as governor.
From a press release issued by the GOP lawmakers:
"The recent allegations of corruption against Blagojevich, the swirling situation surrounding the award of millions of dollars in no-bid legal services contracts by Governor Ed Rendell to his old law firm, and now the information that Deloitte Touche has turned the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) into its own satellite office compel all Pennsylvanians to be concerned about the manner in which the public dollars are being spent," said state Rep. Douglas Reichley. "The disclosures over the last year of possible favoritism in awarding contracts leads us to worry that Pennsylvania is not immune to the perception that it’s not what you can do but who you know that gets you preferential treatment in government contracts. Pennsylvania needs laws in place to ensure that nothing like this can ever occur in our state."Read the full statement at Reichley's Web site.
During his six years in office, Rendell has taken advantage of a weak state law to give preferential consideration to former associates in his former law firm and campaign contributors who have received lucrative contracts for state services without any competitive bidding.
And this from an article in today's edition of The Harrisburg Patriot-News by reporter Jan Murphy:
House Republicans, reacting to state Auditor General Jack Wagner's preliminary audit findings on questionable practices that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in technology contracts for Deloitte, called for state contract reform and a criminal investigation.Read "House Republicans call for contract reform, criminal investigation" at The Patriot-News Web site.
At a Capitol news conference, state Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh, outlined a list of bills aimed at ending what they describe as "pay-to-play politics in Pennsylvania" and afterward urged Attorney General Tom Corbett to investigate whether improprieties occurred involving Deloitte's work on state contracts as well as Gov. Ed Rendell's administration's failure to cooperate with auditors.
A report in today's edition of The Patriot-News shares findings from Wagner's preliminary audit that cites allegations ranging from vendor favoritism to no-bid contracts, along with concerns about the agencies' secrecy surrounding documents that led to Deloitte landing state contracts.
2 comments:
FINALLY!!!!
I had lost all hope in our system. This has been going on for years and they have not even come close to uncovering everything. Where is the mention of the 40 some million wasted at PennDOT over the past 2 years. NOTHING was delivered at all, and the state workers just covered for Deloitte again.
Deloitte has owned the state for the last 5 years, literally. I am not sure if Rendell should be thrown in prison, but a lot of the DPW and DLI folks should be. They all knew this was happening. It was common knowledge that was talked about and joked about because no one cared.
The real criminals here are not Deloitte, it is the state workers who were overseeing the contract and allowing millions of tax payers dollars to be thrown out with the trash.
Most of the contracts won by Deloitte were written by Deloitte, literally. As long as the state worker got the credit it was ok by them.
Thank goodness I am out of it, but my husband is in the middle of all this and is sick from it.
"I am looking for one politican with no sin just one or.... they got hell to pay" Corbett want to be gov.. Keep cleaning house
Post a Comment