WARREN State auditor to check records of janitorial supply purchases

The owner of one supply company pleaded guilty last week.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Representatives from the state auditor's office picked up copies of the city's records pertaining to four janitorial supply companies.
City Auditor David Griffing said auditors took the records relating to Envirochemical, State Chemical Manufacturing Co. and Kinzua Environmental, all of the Cleveland area, and WJ Services of Warren.
The records are for 1999 to the present.
The city's purchases from those companies total about $600,000 in those five years.
Of that amount, about $350,000 went to the Warren company, which also cleans city buildings.
"We didn't start buying cleaning supplies from them until last year," Griffing said.
Guilty plea
Last week, one of the owners of Envirochemical of Bedford Heights, a Cleveland suburb, pleaded guilty to bribery and complicity to theft in office, admitting to overcharging Trumbull County for janitorial supplies.
"My understanding is that they are expanding their investigation," Griffing said, adding that communities in Mahoning County and others in Trumbull County are being looked at.
Griffing slowed city purchasing last October, asking for an opinion from the city law department on purchasing laws.
That same month, the city stopped buying supplies from Envirochemical and Kinzua.
The city auditor also wanted clarification from the state on purchasing parameters.
Griffing's request followed the start of the investigation into the county's purchasing.
State program
In a December opinion, Law Director Greg Hicks wrote that the best way to solve the dilemma is to buy from the state purchasing program whenever possible.
If the commodity needed is not available through the state contract and it exceeds $15,000, it must be acquired through competitive bidding in accordance with Ohio law, according to Hicks.
Competitive bidding is required even in a situation where materials are bought at a specified price per unit if the total amount exceeds $15,000 and purchasing officials could have reasonably anticipated that outcome, Hicks' wrote in his opinion last year.
He recommended that historical data on purchasing be used in making those determinations.