Wednesday,
July 18, the Illinois Procurement Policy Board unanimously rapped University of
Illinois administrators on the knuckles over the award of a $4.3 million
architecture contract to a firm partly owned by the husband of a university
administrator involved in the architect selection process. This second stinging
rebuke will sent the matter to the Illinois Inspector General for
investigation. The Procurement Policy Board again voted 4-0 to recommend
voiding the two year old architecture deal, based on findings that the
university administration violated state law when it failed to bring the
potential conflict of interest to the attention of the state’s chief
procurement officer for higher education Ben Bagby at the time the contract was
initially awarded in 2010. Bagby, however, has remained adamant in his defense
of the arrangement.
On
completing its review of the situation, the Illinois Inspector General’s office
can recommend referral of the issue to state or federal prosecutors, or the
firing, fining or suspension of university officials. Procurement Policy Board
member Ed Bedore could not hold back his disgust with the callousness of
university administrators to their ethical obligations to taxpayers. “I just
hope the university does a better job with their law students than they do with
their attorneys in their offices,” Bedore said. “I would hope that the U of I
would take this back, or the board of trustees would open the windows and raise
the blinds and shed some light on this.”
University
Board of Trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy indicated that the board would
be reconsidering the matter of the architecture contract during its retreat and
monthly board meeting in Chicago this week. “The taxpayer should have
confidence that their money is being spent without conflict. We don’t want any
appearance of conflict when it comes to contracting,” Kennedy said. “We take a
lot of public money, and people ought to trust the University of Illinois. The
board will hold the university staff to the high standard of no perception of
conflict of interest.”
Only
the ultimate outcome of this disgusting incident will tell, however, whose “perception
of conflict of interest” counts for anything in Illinois public contracting.
