Auditor: State Prosecutor ran afoul of procurement laws

The Office of Legislative Audits report on the Office of State Prosecutor. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.

A state agency charged with investigating and prosecuting public officials violated state procurement law when it purchased a case management system, according to the Office of Legislative Audits.

The Office of State Prosecutor failed to use a competitive bid process to purchase the system. State auditors said the agency also failed to provide a written justification for using a sole source contract when it spent more than $131,000 on the system between 2020 and 2023.

Auditors, in their report wrote that the agency “advised that it selected the vendor based on interviews conducted with other State and local entities and its determination that using other vendors would not be cost effective. However, OSP could not provide documentation to support that other vendors were not cost effective, and an informal agency determination of cost-effectiveness does not justify the use of a sole source procurement.”

Auditors obtained correspondence between the prosecutor’s office and the state Department of Information and Technology that ” indicated that a competitive procurement may be needed.”

Auditors also noted that the agency “did not have a signed contract with the vendor.” The agency also failed to announce the contract award on a state website and did not obtain required approvals for the purchase as required by state regulations.

Those regulations limit the use of sole-source purchases to times when no other vendor is acceptable or suitable. Agencies who use that method must provide a written justification.

Agencies are also required to announce when they award a sole-source purchase. Contracts of $100,000 or more must be approved by both the Department of General Services and the Board of Public Works.

The Office of the State Prosecutor is an independent agency with 13 employees and a budget of roughly $2.3 million. It is charged with investigating and prosecuting criminal offenses of election and public ethics laws as well as bribery, malfeasance and nonfeasance in office, and multijurisdictional crimes.

State Prosecutor Charlton T. Howard III said in the agency’s response that the office “acknowledges the concerns raised by” auditors.

“Although a small agency without a dedicated procurement team, OSP consulted extensively with other state agencies, in particular the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) and one other state agency, as well our legal counsel and the Maryland Procurement Manual and other relevant regulations, prior to proceeding with a sole source small procurement of the chosen electronic case management system, and to the best of our ability duplicated the previous process followed by another state agency in acquiring the same system,” the agency wrote in its response.

The agency noted “unique agency electronic data management requirements, as it is the only agency of its kind in the state, and indeed in the US, where all investigation and prosecution functions regarding crimes within the agency’s jurisdiction, as well as civil litigation regarding those matters, are embodied in one stand-alone organization.”

The system purchased by the agency needed to “support investigative factors such as law enforcement reporting, the ability to handle evidence review and documentation in complex financial matters, search warrant support, confidential informant management, criminal intelligence collection, and forensic support; litigation factors such as discovery, motion practice, appellate and postconviction practice, attorney work product protection filter team and restricted data compartmentalization, and on site trial support; as well as administrative factors regarding agency metrics and mandatory reporting.”

The agency noted the “success of the system” but acknowledged a need to “remove any question” that the prosecutor’s office is not following state procurement regulations.

“Accordingly, we will adopt their recommendations to engage in a new contract process,” the agency wrote.

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