Amid the millions of dollars of government waste buried in the thousands of Gov. Janet Mills’ (D-Maine) no-bid contracts obtained by The Maine Wire, the state spent over $250,000 in taxpayer funds to comply with a 2022 pro-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) law.
[RELATED: Senator Harrington Demands Answers on Governor Mills’ Expanding No-Bid Contract Empire…]
The no-bid contract started in December 2023 and awarded $256,500 to the Dallas, Texas-based Gartner, Inc.
According to documents, the contract was needed in order to comply with the 2022 law “An Act To Promote Equity in Policy Making by Enhancing the State’s Ability To Collect, Analyze and Apply Data”
Under that law, the Secretary of State’s Office was required to establish a data collection program that must, among other things, “promote consistent collection of racial and ethnic demographic data” and “create models for sharing data with the public and for developing policies to reduce disparities and increase equity.”
The bill requires the Secretary of State to consult with the taxpayer-funded Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations to discuss how racial equity can be incorporated into the data program.
“The consultation must include discussion of methods for building racial equity considerations into every aspect of the data life cycle, including planning, data collection, data access, algorithms, statistical tools, data analysis, reporting and dissemination,” says the text of the law.
The no-bid contract was intended to help fulfill a requirement of that law to establish a state data management and governance practice.
The contract was awarded to the Texas-based company after the Maine Office of Information Technology (MaineIT) reviewed quotes from multiple firms that could meet its needs and found that Gartner was the most affordable option that could work within the required timeframe, the state office wrote in their justification.
