Chicago’s 911 call center ‘bootstrapped’ Motorola contract
From the Chicago Tribune: Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General concluded that officials at the city’s 911 center falsified paperwork to justify giving a $23 million digital-radio contract to a preselected firm, nearby Schaumburg-based Motorola.
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 inspector general’s report, obtained by the Tribune.
“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.”
The request to award the contract without bidding was approved by the city’s Sole Source Review Board, and the inspector general’s office recommends in his report that the board’s meetings be public. The Department of Procurement Services, which oversees that board, rejected that idea, the report states.
