Chicago Motorola procurement scandal deepens

21 Oct 2010

Source  Chicago Tribune
City officials in Chicago USA circumvented competitive bidding rules to steer a $23 million digital-radio contract to Schaumburg-based Motorola, according to City Hall's top watchdog and documents obtained by the ChicagoTribune.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson concluded that officials at Chicago's 911 center falsified paperwork to justify giving the contract to a preselected firm. That company is identified as Motorola in documents obtained by the Tribune through an open records request.

Office of Emergency Management and Communications officials said using Motorola would preserve "the city's prior investment of nearly $2 million" in Motorola equipment bought earlier. But the city actually paid only $350,000 for that equipment, according to Ferguson's report. "OEMC had falsified documents to push the initial purchase through an unrelated contract with the vendor," the report concluded. "OEMC essentially 'bootstrapped' a $23 million contract on an earlier, $350,000 fraudulently obtained purchase."

When investigators began asking questions, they had trouble determining "who was responsible, because of the debilitating combination at (emergency management) of high turnover, endemic finger-pointing, poor or nonexistent internal controls and missing paperwork," the report stated. Ferguson's report said Emergency Management and Communications' "long-running failure to effectively manage the procurement and contract process presents a significant risk to the city's emergency preparedness, fiscal security and grant compliance."

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