By Mike Cronin | Texas Watchdog

But a sweeping performance audit by a national education nonprofit group has found numerous problems in the school district’s system of buying goods and services.

And that review raised some of the same questions about the Houston schools’ procurement practices that Texas Watchdog asked last year about the district’s grounds-keeping contract with the locally based Southwest Wholesale Nursery.

The ways the Houston Independent School District does business “lead to a perception of manipulation of and distrust in the procurement process,” stated the audit by the Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools.

A Texas Watchdog investigation published in December of HISD’s business practices showed evidence of flawed bidding evaluations, improper influence by board members and suggestions of contract steering.

The council, which undertook the review at the request of HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, performed its examination of the Houston school system in October. Grier serves on the council’s executive committee.

HISD officials declined to answer questions this week whether about whether they still stood by their decision to award the grounds-keeping contract to Southwest.

A district spokesman this week declined to discuss the council’s audit or the similarities between its conclusions and Texas Watchdog’s questions about the grounds-keeping contract. Grier and HISD Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett did not respond to multiple e-mail requests for comment for this story.