Gov. Jim Doyle cancelled the controversial state travel contract with Adelman Travel Group Monday and announced he has ordered a review of the state's contracting process.
The contract termination came at the heels of a recent indictment of Department of Administration employee Georgia Thompson.
Thompson has been charged with fixing the state's procurement process in favor of Adelman due to the travel group's ties to $20,000 in donations made to Doyle's re-election campaign.
But Doyle has steadfastly denied involvement in the alleged scandal surrounding the Adelman contract, and said in a statement he is "taking aggressive action" to restore public trust in the state's government.
"As I have said before, I have zero tolerance for ethical lapses, and I will continue to demand the highest standards from everyone in my administration," Doyle said in a release, after indicating in a separate release last week that he never met Thompson.
Scott Larrivee, public information officer for the Wisconsin DOA, said measures are already being taken to set up an alternate travel agency for state workers.
"We're doing away with Adelman's contract and pushing forward with an online vendor — Fox World Travel," Larrivee said, adding the online travel-booking option will still save the state money compared to other online travel providers and will be easy for state and University of Wisconsin employees to use.
The Adelman contract was brought into question last fall when it was revealed members of the procurement committee actually favored a different travel company for the three-year, $750,000 job.
Additionally, Craig Adelman, president of Adelman Travel Group, and another top Adelman official each donated $10,000 around the time the state awarded Adelman the contract, which further spurred allegations that under-handed motives were behind the procurement process.
The indictment charges against Thompson stem from an investigation into the contract award by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Thompson has been charged with two felony counts of rigging the procurement process by changing her scoring to boost Adelman's rating, using the scoring as a "negotiation tool," suggesting other committee members change their scoring and blocking members from choosing another company for the contract over Adelman.
Although Doyle said there was no wrongdoing in the procurement process, he has been the target of harsh criticism from Republican opponents and campaign-finance reform advocates.
Bruce Pfaff, campaign manager for Milwaukee County Executive and 2006 gubernatorial hopeful Scott Walker, said Doyle's nixing of the contract is a "half-hearted measure."
"He's only done half of what needs to be done — he needs to return the campaign money and he needs to put safeguards in place to make sure this doesn't happen ever again," Pfaff said, adding he feels Doyle should shoulder some blame for what occurred.
However, as of Monday, Doyle said his campaign will not return the $20,000 in donations to the two Adelman executives.
Additionally, several state legislators and two front-running Republican candidates for the 2006 governor's race — Walker and U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis. — have proposed state government reform as a safeguard against alleged campaign-finance snafus like the Adelman contract award.
"Now more than ever is the time to advance the Contract Sunshine Act, a reform measure that would make government more open and transparent," State Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said in a release about legislation he drafted to prevent such scandal. "This bill would help catch potential conflicts of interest by inviting greater scrutiny of the contracting process."
Doyle campaign representatives did not return phone calls as of press time.
