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By Derek Legette | The Nerve
More than $285,000 in taxpayer dollars and a promised computer system for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources remain in limbo.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — More than $285,000 in taxpayer dollars and a promised computer system for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources remain in limbo, even as a state panel has lifted a suspension for an Iowa software company with ties to the project.
After two days of hearings, the state Procurement Review Panel last week reversed a ruling by the state’s chief procurement officer to suspend TAC 10 Inc. and its president from being awarded state contracts because work was not finished on a new DNR computer system.
Mark DeGroote, TAC 10′s president, appealed a Feb. 17, 2011, suspension order by Michael Spicer, the state’s chief procurement officer.
The contract to install the new records management system was with Smart Public Safety Software Inc., which, according to records, ran into financial difficulties before the project was completed. TAC 10, made up of some former Smart employees, later was formed and acquired Smart’s assets, records show.
At issue was whether TAC 10 had assumed Smart’s contract for the DNR computer system. In last week’s hearings, lawyers for TAC 10 contended their client was not responsible for the contract.
