Startup Engineering company Trilogy Engineering is trying to get a $400,000 contract with the city of Jackson to study lead contamination in the water supply.
As it turns out, Trilogy’s top executives were involved in fund-raising efforts for Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, who is pushing the council to give Trilogy the contract.
When council members grilled Trilogy president Phillip Gibson about fund-raising for the mayor he responded, “So does every other engineering company in the state.”
Therein lies the problem. Throughout Mississippi, contractors donate to politicians who, once elected, pay back their donors by favoring them for huge government contracts. As a result, taxpayers are overcharged. This needs to be against the law.
Instead of concentrating on the best services for the least amount of money, contractors focus on buying politicians.
The cost of this corrupt system to Mississippi taxpayers is in the hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars. This type of corruption is a significant factor in explaining Mississippi’s low per capita income compared to other states in the South.
If you look at successful states such as Florida or Texas, you will find extremely well-crafted bidding laws that apply to all levels of government. The bidding process is regulated by one centralized well-staffed agency with hundreds of professionals who monitor the process for fairness and legality. It’s good government.
Then look at Mississippi’s bidding laws. They are a jumbled, fragmented, vague, superficial mess with no centralized enforcement. Not to mention the hidden loopholes conveniently disguised throughout thousands of pages of state statutes.
Readers may recall the recent bidding scandal involving former prison head Chris Epps. The federal government estimates this one scandal alone cost taxpayers $300 million.
As it turns out, the Mississippi Department of Corrections was exempted from all bidding laws a decade ago by a single line of law snuck into an unrelated bill. Nobody knows who did this or why, but some of the people who were convicted along with Epps were former legislators.
Most states have documentation for all proposed laws and amendments to state legislation. That way you can go back and track these sneaky under-the-radar amendments. Not so in Mississippi. These types of loopholes are done in secret. Only a few conniving legislators know the score. Just one more example of how our corrupt state government operates.
Successful states require government work to be awarded to the “lowest responsive bidder.” That means the bid must be responsive to the request for proposal and must be the lowest price.
Not so in Mississippi. The work can go to the “lowest and best” bid. The key word here is “best.” That’s a loophole you can drive a Mack truck through. It means a free-for-all for politicians to favor contractors who are padding their coffers.
To be sure, Mississippi has an ethics law, which is universally unenforced and has incredibly weak penalties.
State law 25-4-105 states: “No public servant shall use his official position to obtain, or attempt to obtain, pecuniary benefit for himself other than that compensation provided for by law, or to obtain, or attempt to obtain, pecuniary benefit for any relative or any business with which he is associated.”
Campaign contributions would qualify as a “pecuniary benefit.” And a politician is certainly “associated” with his contributors. It seems to me, using your office to favor a contractor who contributes to your campaign is a violation of our state ethics law.
The law also states: “No public servant shall be interested, directly or indirectly, during the term for which he shall have been chosen, or within one (1) year after the expiration of such term, in any contract with the state, or any district, county, city or town thereof, authorized by any law passed or order made by any board of which he may be or may have been a member.”
And finally: “No public servant shall perform any service for any compensation during his term of office or employment by which he attempts to influence a decision of the authority of the governmental entity of which he is a member.”
Mayor Yarber, over the vehement objections of the city council, actively promotes contractors who funded his campaign, even when they are not the lowest bidder.
Surely this violates the spirit and probably the letter of our state ethics law.
Sadly, as our put-upon Jackson contractor noted, he is just doing business the way it’s done in Mississippi. Is it any wonder our state was recently named the most corrupt state in the nation? Don’t forget that government officials can pocket their campaign contributions when they leave office.
What’s the penalty for violating our state ethics law? A maximum $10,000 fine and removal from office. The contract would be declared void and any profits would have to be relinquished. Most states send violators to jail. Not so in Mississippi.
This assumes the state Ethics Commission would actually pursue such cases, which it doesn’t. The commission must petition a local circuit court judge to enforce its actions, making prosecution even harder.
Our state ethics commission is headed by Tom Hood, the brother of Jim Hood, who has made national headlines for awarding big legal contracts to his political contributors. So I doubt our state ethics commission will be leading the charge to wipe out this type of soft corruption. Hood was easily re-elected this year, despite facing a challenger who pointed all this out. Ironically, the challenger, Mike Hurst, was one of the federal prosecutors who put Chris Epps in jail.
And so it goes. The taxpayers get screwed but plenty of politically-connected wheeler-dealers make good money.
My job is to report what’s going on. It’s up to the voters to elect responsible leaders who will improve this situation.
