Patrick Administration Caught in DiMasi's Ethics Mess?

It's not that I'm not critical of the Patrick Administration. It's just that I suspect it was incompetence, rather than intentional wrongdoing, that led our state's executive branch to sign off on another sleazy deal of our ethically-challenged House Speaker Sal DiMasi.

It was the Patrick Administration that asked the state's inspector general to look into the hinky deal to buy some costly software for the state. Why ask for an investigation that would implicate the administration's secretary of administration and finance, Leslie A. Kirwan? My guess there was an arse-from-their-elbow, not purposeful wrongdoing.

Regardless, the Administration is in hot water over not following rules meant to preserve its own reputation. The inspector general found that the Patrick Administration had cut corners in rushing to approve a $13 million contract with Cognos, a subsidiary of IBM which creates software that helps analyze the operations of state governments. From the Globe:

Governor Deval Patrick's administration overspent by millions of dollars when it rushed to sign a $13 million computer software contract that has since been canceled and is now the subject of a state ethics investigation, according to technology analysts.

In making the purchase last year from Cognos Inc., the Patrick administration agreed to distribute the sophisticated management software to 20,000 state government users, many of whom, according to analysts, would lack either the skills or the need to use it. But by distributing the software to that many employees, it dramatically inflated the price.

"It is certainly not a tool for everyone in the organization," said Theodore Grossman, professor of technology operations and information management at Babson College. "It requires a level of sophistication to use it and understand the results."

While the Patrick administration paid $13 million to Cognos, Ohio put similar Cognos software in the hands of 6,000 employees. The Ohio price tag: just $2.9 million.

Keep reading this article to find out about DiMasi's role in landing this over-priced contract. Click on my link above to read what I posted earlier in the year.

--Mb