Pennsylvania gaming board gets OK on emergency contracts

Marc Levy

Monday, Aug. 22, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday authorized the state gambling board to sign no-bid contracts for background investigations, even as a lawmaker was taking steps to try to stop the agency from getting around the competitive bidding process.

The contracts, which are not final yet, would be awarded for forensic accounting investigations of 10 slot-machine manufacturers that have applied to do business in Pennsylvania as well as for background checks of the companies' executives and employees.

The emergency contractors could eventually expand their work to other gambling-related firms once the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board opens application periods for them.

The administration official who approved the Aug. 12 request to write the emergency no-bid contracts said the desire to begin collecting tax revenue from slot machines justifies doing without competitive bidding.

"I think their ability to fulfill their statutory obligation has consequences, doesn't it? From a revenue perspective for the commonwealth, from a tax relief perspective," said Curtis Topper, the deputy secretary for procurement in the state Department of General Services.

Members of the gambling board say that a constitutional challenge to the slot-machine gambling law delayed the process of licensing slots parlors, which in turn has delayed gambling-financed property tax cuts for homeowners and tax revenues for the local governments hosting slots parlors.

"The longer it takes to get (gambling) into play, the longer it will take for those benefits to be realized across Pennsylvania," gambling board spokesman Nick Hays said.

Competitive bidding could delay a contract for six months or longer, while contracts could be awarded in a matter of weeks under emergency procurement, officials said. State law allows emergency procurement in cases of "an urgency of need."

But several state lawmakers have questioned whether the gambling board is using the emergency procurement statute out of convenience rather than necessity.

State Sen. John C. Rafferty Jr., a Chester County Republican and a former state prosecutor, said he is writing legislation to bar the gambling board from using the emergency procurement process.

Rafferty said he believes that state police can handle the background checks the gambling board wants to do.