Monday, May 28, 2007

Who has the city IT contract?

This comment came in after an Anon questioned who currently holds the city IT contract:

Anon#1,

You are right. Ciber is still in City Hall. There's nothing funny about it. But since you went there....

Ciber is operating under a 5.5 million Technology Services contract awarded in August 2005. This contract was a reward for allowing Meffert's crew to use the Ciber GSA (federal contracting schedule) as a procurement vehicle (no RFP/BID required) in 2004 when the previous Tech RFP was cancelled due to a growing awareness in City Hall that the Meffert crew was secretly steering the contract to Ciber.

Even after the award of the 5.5 million contract to Ciber in 2005, Meffert kept the Imagine Software/Veracent/NetMethods (IVN) group under the Ciber GSA so that they would not appear on the 5.5 million awarded to Ciber. This way no one could call foul because IVN was not on the contract. The GSA was meant to be a "secret" and avoid public scrutiny.

Now fast forward, Benetech is the new favored son (ala plane ride to Saints game in Chicago). Ciber didn't bail on the GSA contract. It was taken and given to Benetech period. It is the GSA contract that is essentially being bidded out now - due to the TP and AZ excellent coverage and unveiling of the GSA no bid contracts and all the patronage and quid pro quo that went with it.

There you go...see nothing funny about raping the City for the last 5 years. It is a serious web of crooks that is using different names, contracts, companies etc. to confuse the average citizen. They read AZ and try to anonymously and discreetly to point out discrepancies as an attempt to discredit every comment posted by AZ and fellow bloggers and take the legs from under the movement to expose their asses.


Which is probably exactly why the previous Anon posted the Ciber question. This is a great comment...I didn't want to post too much about the current state of the city IT contract because I didn't understand what was going on. I knew Benetech got the contract without a bid....but I wasn't sure if Ciber was still involved.

So the IT contract has been put back up for bid in lieu of the TP's coverage of the Benetech no bid contract. Also remember that the whole thing which opened my eyes to Benetech was the new bid for the interoperability communication system which is now apparently coming through DHS. I have no doubt that it will go to Benetech as well.

Also...check this little factoid out that another Anon. uncovered:

The LA secty of state corp database is an interesting read. It lists C Ray at 28 Park Island Drive and newer filings for Meffert list him (and Linda Meffert) at 24 Park Island.

Google maps (highly unscientific and quite possibly suspect) show both addresses pointing to the same house...so are C Ray and Meffert next-door neighbors or is Google correct and they are roomies?

Either way....seems awfully interesting to me


This is really important because it's one more piece of the puzzle which shows that Nagin is not only aware of Meffert's machinations....he's empowering them and is, without question, complicit.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

according to the website for the orleans parish assessor's office, meffert is living at 24 park island drive which he purchased in 2002. nagin's info is more confusing, as the same page calls his street island drive and park island drive, but supposedly 28 whatever was purchased in 1998. and clarence has another property on bacchus drive. you do the math.

mominem said...

Why is using GSA contract schedules suspicious?

The GSA schedules are negotiated by the Federal Government's General Services administration. As Federal Contracts they usually have very good terms (for what they cover) and are easily approved by various Federal Funding Agencies.

GSA generally has several vendors offering competing products and services. The Using Agency is usually free to select the vendor they prefer.

bayoustjohndavid said...

I've joked before about the FBI or justice Dept. having a file on the "Park Island Gang" in the past, maybe it's not such an unlikely idea.

Like I said in an email, if one Baton Rouge blogger (or Houma or wherever Chad Rogers lives) can get the Picayune to run a few stories on whether Mitch Landrieu was wearing make-up, there are certainly enough other bloggers to get the paper to run stories on both the mayor's business dealings and the no-bid contracts or general lack of transparency.

If past experience is any guide, any articles that don't include the big picture will be quickly forgotten. The first potential scandal (back in 2002) was dismissed as the embarrassing work of Nagin's "Billy Carter brother-in-law," nobody noticed that the embarrassing in-law was a paid consultant to Nagin's re-election campaign and featured speaker at the second inauguration. Later questionable dealings were assumed to be Charles Rice taking advantage of Nagin's trusting nature, even though the administration gave Rice's new company a sweetheart reconstruction contract after he left the administration. Any story that's only about Benetech will be blamed on the techno wizzes pulling a fast one.

Jason Brad Berry said...

moninem,

are you actually reading the posts or are you just arguing for arguing's sake?

He didn't say there was anything suspicious about the use of GSA contracts...he was explaining how Meffert had used them to procure no bid contracts for his own posse as subcontractors. The same thing they're doing with Benetech under a state contract.

The issue is one of patronage, kickbacks, and chronyism....over 50 million in city contracts has been let without bids to Benetech since the storm alone.

I encourage dissenting comments but you keep making them based on either your misinterpretation of the posts or tangents.

Jason Brad Berry said...

BSJD,

Yeah but he's absolutely complicit with the techno wankers and that's the connection I'm trying to make. The fact that he accepted the private flight to the Chicago game alone is illegal...that's exactly what Tom Delay got busted for when he took all expense paid golf trip to St. Andrews on Abramoff's extorted Houma Indian Casino cash.

The ethical issues are myriad...but there are also laws being broken.

I, for one, have faith in the TP...at least to a certain degree. I think they usually get around to disseminating the wheat from the chaff and publish the facts. Granted this blog & yours has some chaff in it, but I think both of us have done a damn good job of shining a light on these rodents.

Now if we could just get the U.S. Attorney's office or FBI to take notice...

Anonymous said...

You can get the FBI and Letten to notice if you simply send them all the facts you have, state your name and contact information and request that someone please get in touch with you. Hell, just print out all these blog posts over the past year, assemble some TP stories and that's enough. I speak from experience. I did it some years ago during another politician's reign of terror. I would highly encourage you to do the same, AZ if you're not already. You present very specific information and insights and they may be very glad to hear from you. I never had any negative things happen to me during the time after I got in touch with them.