A legislative joint committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, otherwise known as PEER has a report out questioning some of the Department of Education’s contracts.
“The committee found that the MDE entered into multiple contracts in fiscal years 2014-2016 having apparent similarities in the scope of work and for amounts that collectively exceeded bid thresholds, rather than competitively bidding contracts for such services,” said James Barber, Executive Director of the PEER committee.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT
Barber said that the MDE also paid $214,469.70 to a vendor for computer-related goods and services without a contract and said that the amount well surpassed the purchasing thresholds for both information technology and personal services.
The committee said that they recommended the Office of the State Auditor review the findings in the report to determine whether the MDE violated state purchasing rules and regulations when they obtained the contracts.