A year and a half before a no-bid state contract collapsed in scandal last month, a criminal investigation into tens of millions of dollars worth of deals awarded through a similar process by Rick Perry's administration was derailed by the funding veto that got the governor indicted, according to the prosecutor who led the probe....
Officials said the earlier Public Integrity Unit investigation focused on more than $20 million in no-bid contracts given to Virginia defense contractor Abrams Learning and Information Systems Inc. to help Texas develop its border security strategies.
The Virginia firm, founded by retired Army Gen. John Abrams, initially got a $471,800 contract in March 2006 to help the state establish a Border Security Operations Center in Austin, according to state documents. The deal went through the no-bid process because officials said it was in response to "an emergency."
An internal memo that later surfaced in news reports showed that the declaration of an emergency was based on public statements by Perry, who at the time was in a tough re-election campaign in which border security was a big issue.
Three months after its first contract, Abrams received a second emergency deal, for $679,600, that greatly expanded the company's responsibilities.
AND read another article about this, where it's clear that Perry may be accused of derailing a CRIMINAL investigation into no-bid contracts that involved his border security stuff.
The Department of Public Safety in 2006 gave ALIS an initial $476,000 contract to help establish a Border Security Operations Center in Austin.
In an internal memo, a state emergency-management official said there was too much of an emergency on the border to allow time to follow state competitive-bidding laws. But, Rodriguez later pointed out to the Department of Public Safety that the only evidence of an emergency cited by the official were claims made by Perry in the heat of the 2006 governor's race.
"With little factual evidence that this danger existed, besides the use of political rhetoric and scare tactics, what findings existed to warrant an emergency contract foregoing a competitive-bidding process?" Rodriguez asked in a 2012 letter to the Department of Public Safety.
Rodriguez said he's never received a satisfactory answer to that question or subsequent requests for data measuring whether the border is secure and whether the taxpayer money spent by the state has been effective.
After 2006, ALIS received a series of subsequent no-bid contracts that by 2012 totaled just over $19 million. Rodriguez said he's had trouble determining what the company's qualifications were to do the job, or what the taxpayers got for their money.
Of particular concern was an item titled "Border Security Public Outreach Themes and Messages." Rodriguez said the $56,000 ALIS was paid for the item seemed excessive and that the company had a clear conflict of interest in doing it at any price.
The company was, Rodriguez said, being paid to hype a problem it was also being paid to help solve. Among ALIS's "themes and messages" was one that said "the success of Texas border security and law enforcement efforts are critical to you and your family's safety and way of life."
Rick Perry the Crook- Perry's Veto Killed Investigation into No Bid contracts
