TRENTON—The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) today directed Hudson County not to proceed with an award of a $13.5 million contract to a prison healthcare management company because the County used an improper process without free and open competition. As part of OSC’s statutorily established oversight, OSC has repeatedly advised the County how to properly procure the services, but the County has failed to comply and has refused to follow OSC’s directive that the County report how it will comply with New Jersey’s procurement laws.

In the March 21 letter addressed to County Counsel, OSC said that the County circumvented transparency and public bidding requirements when it didn’t advertise the opportunity to bid, invited a few hand-picked firms to apply, and improperly entered into private negotiations with the preferred vendor. Since December 2023, Hudson County has repeatedly disregarded OSC’s directive to submit a corrective action plan to procure the services using a competitive, publicly advertised process, as the law requires. OSC's letter directed the County to submit this plan within five days. Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh today also sent a letter to Governor Murphy, Senate President Scutari, and Assembly Speaker Coughlin, notifying them of Hudson County’s ongoing violations and failure to cooperate with OSC. 

The Local Public Contracts Law was “enacted to benefit New Jersey taxpayers and instill trust that public officials are making well-reasoned and unbiased decisions that serve the public good,” Walsh’s letter to State leaders said. “Disregarding important public bidding requirements, as the County has done here, threatens to erode public confidence in the public bidding laws and their use by local officials.”

OSC found that Hudson County disregarded OSC’s statutorily established oversight and submitted the procurement in November 2023, two months after proposals had already come in, and the lowest bid exceeded $12.5 million.  By law, if a contract is valued at $12.5 million or more, the local government is required to submit it to OSC for review and approval at least 30 days before beginning the procurement process.    

OSC’s review also found that Hudson County had used an improper procurement process in 2018 when it procured services from the prison healthcare management company named Wellpath. The County renewed Wellpath’s contract year after year, without advertising, resulting in an expenditure of over $39.5 million over five years.  

In the letter to Hudson County, OSC said, “It is against the public interest to permit this significant expenditure of taxpayers’ funds to be spent without the protections of New Jersey’s public bidding laws and OSC’s statutory review.”    

Read OSC's letter to Hudson County.

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