A Prince George's County food-service company won an emergency raise Wednesday to keep feeding inmates in Baltimore correctional and detention facilities, but not before two top state officials called for a review by Maryland's attorney general of how the flawed $38 million deal went awry.
The three-member Board of Public Works voted unanimously to pay Crystal Enterprises Inc. $6.6 million through the end of August while state corrections officials scramble to put a new three-year contract out to bid. That would replace the one awarded to the Glenn Dale-based company in early January and abruptly canceled in February.
Within weeks of taking over the Baltimore food service job, Crystal complained it had been misled about the number of many inmates it would be serving, and the company threatened to stop work within four days if it did not get paid more per meal. The company had bid to feed 22,500 inmates at $1.43 per meal, but found instead it was serving fewer than 16,000 prisoners at one point, which company officials said was jeopardizing their ability to keep the business going.
Stephen T. Moyer, the state secretary of public safety and corrections, said he "inherited" the problem from the O'Malley administration, noting that the state spending board had awarded Crystal the contract just before Republican Gov. Larry Hogan took office in January. Moyer's procurement officer, Joselyn M. Hopkins, told the board the contract had been based on an erroneous estimate of the number of inmates housed daily in Baltimore facilities.
Comptroller Peter Franchot, who frequently questions contracts during the spending board meetings, called this "probably the most troubling item I've seen in eight years." He expressed dismay not only at the original contract award, but at the lack of a performance bond and the company's threat to pull out within days if not paid more, leaving thousands of inmates without any food service.
Trinity Services Group, the former food service provider, had protested Crystal's winning bid, questioning how it could deliver meals at such a low cost. Trinity officials appeared before the board again Wednesday to object to the emergency contract, noting that Crystal now will be getting paid 54 percent more per meal than it originally bid.
Moyer said he felt he had no choice but to grant Crystal a new, emergency contract because there was no way to replace the food service on such short notice.
Crystal officials appeared and defended their stance, saying they were losing thousands of dollars a day and the kitchen facilities they took over were in terrible shape, requiring major emergency overhauls.
Franchot wasn't mollified and said he would ask Attorney General Brian E. Frosh to "look at this from A to Z" to figure out if the irregularities were "due to incompetence and not something else." Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp said she believed it was primarily sloppiness, but she agreed that a review was needed.
Hogan called the contract award "one of the most disgraceful displays of mismanagement I've ever seen in my life." But he defended his Cabinet secretary's handling of the aftermath. "We've got to get to the bottom of what happened," Hogan said, "but in the meantime we have to serve meals to the prisoners."