Politics & Government

Former State Official Pressured CA For Discounts

A comptroller's audit found that Rico Singleton, former chief information officer for the Office of Technology, threatened to blacklist company if it didn't offer credit for future work.

A former state employee improperly put pressure on CA in Islandia to provide its services for a discount, according to an audit conducted by the state comptroller's office.

Newsday reports state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Rico Singleton, the former deputy chief information officer for the Office of Technology, told CA if it didn't provide credits to the state for future work, it would be blacklisted.

The findings stem from a project in 2008, according to Newsday, when Singleton hired CA to over the technology's department's procurement system. The $1.05 -million project was put out to bid with a short response time that failed to attract other bidders.

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When the project later failed due to poor planning, according to a statement from the comptroller's office, Singleton told CA the contract would be labeled as cancelled "for cause" - a designation that bears serious consequences for a company because it infers that the problems were the fault of the vendor and could have affected CA's future business with the state.

THe comptroller's audit found Singleton tried to coerce CA to provide credit to the state for future work, in exchange for changing the "for cause" status to a termination "for convenience," which does not carry a negative stigma.

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CA officials told investigators that "they felt they were being subjected to 'extortion' or being 'held hostage'," according to a statement from the comptroller's office. Ultimately, CA met Singleton's demand by crediting the state $222,743 for future work, according to Newsday.

The findings of the comptroller's office are being referred to Joint Commission on Public Ethics.


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