newjerseynewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

UPDATED

Rutgers University restricts competition for its public contracts by rejecting basic bidding requirements imposed on all other New Jersey state colleges and universities, an action that leads to lost taxpayer dollars, favoritism, and risks corruption.

An audit of Rutgers' procurement practices by the Office of the State Comptroller made public Wednesday found that in almost all instances the university does not publicly advertise for its contracts, instead selecting preferred vendors by taking advantage of a unique statutory exemption.

Under current state law, bidding requirements applicable to all other state colleges and universities do not apply to Rutgers.

The audit found Rutgers fails to require its vendors to disclose ownership information, making it impossible for the university to properly enforce its nepotism policy prohibiting the award of contracts to university employees or their immediate family members.

Responding to tips, OSC auditors found two Rutgers vendors were in fact spouses of university employees. Rutgers officials, who said they were already aware of the conflicts, ended up taking widely different disciplinary action in the two cases.

In one case, the employee who approved the contract was demoted and received a cut in salary while the employee related to the vendor received a letter of reprimand. In the second situation, no one was disciplined. Instead, the university addressed the violation by canceling the contract and creating a temporary employment position for the employee-related vendor.

OSC has referred this matter to the State Ethics Commission.

Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) called the comptroller's findings disturbing.

"Rutgers has no justification for failing to implement a competitive bidding process, or for, in some instances, failing to provide even the most basic kinds of oversight," Sweeney said. "Their failure to even implement their own nepotism policies would be comical if it were not so serious. That is just unacceptable.

“Given today’s difficult economic climate, we should be taking all steps necessary to make education more affordable, not less," the senator said. "Unfortunately, in the end it is the students who suffer the most. The recommendations of the audit should be thoroughly reviewed and implemented as quickly and as feasibly as possible."

In another instance, Rutgers granted a waiver from competition to award a $325,000 contract to provide parking management services during basketball and football games at the university. The same vendor has now held that contract for 16 years without competition. While the waiver form characterized parking management as a unique service for which competitive bids could not be solicited, auditors found at least four other vendors that offer local parking management services for sporting events.

"Questions have been raised about Rutgers' contracting over the years so we took a look at how the process works at the university," State Comptroller Matthew Boxer said. "What we found is that Rutgers is permitted to avoid competitive processes that all other public colleges in New Jersey must use. Its procurement policy allows for exceptions that are so general and undefined, they essentially give Rutgers officials unfettered discretion when selecting vendors."