[Editor’s note: Where is the accountability to the taxpayers? Government waste and for state contractors “good work if you can get it.” Healey soaks state taxpayers picking up the tab, reportedly $10 million.]
From the Boston Globe which did a deep dive on what essentially is a no-bid contract awarded to Spinelli’s.
“Just four weeks into the job, Spinelli’s delivered undercooked chicken, emails reveal.
Despite problems that were evident from the get-go, and that would be raised repeatedly in the months to come, state officials accepted the steep prices of Spinelli’s early invoices, and, with no evident negotiation, handed the caterer a no-bid contract worth $10 million in late September 2023, according to emails and text messages reviewed by the Globe.
The caterer ultimately collected $9.4 million — costing taxpayers $19.38 a meal, state records show. That rate was 30 percent higher than what theMassachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants paid small vendors and local restaurants — $14.85 a meal — to deliver to shelters that weren’t on Spinelli’s list. The payout to Spinelli’s was so generous that it drove up later food costs, as subsequent bidders sought similar rates, one competitor told the Globe.
“’It was effectively a monopoly that essentially tainted the price curve, set up an originally very high price that took a long while to really find its equilibrium,” said Francis Gouillart, CEO of Stock Pot Malden.'”
