Two of Chicago Public Schools’ largest vendors investigated by the inspector general for significant ethical lapses may be too large to ban from district business — and still CPS fails to even monitor them adequately, the schools’ watchdog said in an annual report released Monday.
Removing the giant vendors for wining and dining employees and providing other perks for preferential treatment “would critically affect the ability of CPS to provide necessary services at market prices,” according to the report written by Inspector General James M. Sullivan.
The vendors — Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality and Preferred Meals Systems — handle about $77 million in CPS food service, and “not many other entities can handle that scale,” Sullivan said by telephone Monday.
Despite his recommendations that CPS appoint a monitor over such large vendors, “that recommendation has fallen on deaf ears,” the report reads. ...More HERE
