When a governmental entity ponies up our money for some food for the elderly, we aren’t expecting Golden Corral prices. We’d hope some quantity buying could be leveraged.

But the East Texas Council of Governments contracted with a private meal provider on a pilot program for its senior nutrition program, according to a recent state audit, and prices per meal for the pilot hit $10.88 between March 2009 and September 2009, compared to $5.52 at group dining places operated by other meal providers.

The audit by the State Auditor’s Office also found that after the council had ranked the bids for service to the program, one bidding provider griped – and “[the council] awarded a contract to a provider that had not submitted a proposal,” according to the report.

This must have had some heads shaking. It made us dizzy just reading the narrative. It appears that after the appeal from an initial bidder, the council sent all bids to a committee. Then the committee changed the criteria for the bids. And more complaints ensued.

“Following a second appeal by the same provider, the council contacted a separate provider that had not submitted a proposal and asked this new provider to provide services for a county that had complained about the quality of past meal services. The [committee] then reviewed the proposals for a third time and issued a third set of recommendations, which included awarding a contract to provide services in the county mentioned above to the new provider."

The context of the problem is simply an agency in trouble.

"The program was on the ropes, and it was broken," council Executive Director David Cleveland said.

 Eating sites had been shuttered due to poor performance on the part of some contractors. So a pilot program was hatched that might provide better service, Cleveland said in an interview with Texas Watchdog.

The meal cost was so high on the pilot, Cleveland said, because there were fewer people to feed.

Today? "I'd have to crack that down, but it's not $10.88," he said. "The scale has gone up, and the prices have gone down."

And as for the handing over of a contract to someone who hadn't even bid? That came about because of complaints about the provider who was appealing. "We had to get someone in there who could do a good job," Cleveland said. 

And that someone, apparently, hadn't even been interested in managing the meal program.

We're still dizzy.

Anyway, we see the council has again issued a request for proposals to manage its senior nutrition program. We like the green beans and mashed potatoes, if anyone is wondering.

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of a meat loaf dinner by flickr user The Marmot, used via a Creative Commons license.