Editor’s note: This story represents substantial revisions from the story published in the Feb. 25 print edition of Technician.
A Utah vendor who alleges that the University violated rules regarding competitive bidding practice has contacted the attorney general’s office requesting an investigation.
Lynn Packer, owner of V-Chassis, a lecture capture product, in competition with Mediasite of Wisconsin, said the University purchased 100 units of Mediasite appliances between 2004 and 2009 with a value of more than $1 million, and did not consider other companies in accordance with the states open bidding process.
“States have laws that require state agencies to ensure that they use some sort of competitive bid process in order to produce goods and services,” Packer said.
“In the course of bringing [V-Chassis] to market, I started doing research on how lecture capture equipment was marketed. That’s when I started to see indicators that Sonic Foundry was able to skirt competitive bidding laws,” Packer said.
However, Blain Woods, NCSU assistant director for purchasing, said he has pulled purchase orders back to 2004 and has been told the equipment has been on campus for 10 to 12 years.
Rather than using the state bidding process, departments can use a convenience contract for known vendors who regularly supply state entities with equipment.
“The departments already had inventory of the existing equipment from the same manufacturer and state law allows us to waive the bid process if there’s standardization [sic] and compatibility,” Woods said.
During his initial personal investigation, Packer contacted N.C. State to obtain documents relevant to the procurement of lecture capture equipment. Packer said he has been less than happy with the time the University has taken to send him documents he requested.
Clifton Williams, University records officer, said he began working with Packer two months ago.
“I have provided Mr. Packer with several hundred documents, and I continue to work with him on this,” Williams said. “I have explained to Mr. Packer that there is no specific timeline established in state law as it relates to the release of public records.”
Packer also claimed an N.C. State faculty member, Tom Miller, was on a Sonic Foundry advisory board.
“He was on the board near the time that the University acquired its first Mediasite appliance,” Packer said. “He has told me that he had nothing to do with that.”
Miller, who said he wears “two hats,” is the vice provost for distance education and leaning technologies, and is also director of the University’s entrepreneurship initiative.
“I served on the advisory board for Sonic Foundry. The advisory board is not the board of directors,” Miller said. “It’s an informal board that the company puts together.”
Keith Nichols, director of news and communications, commented on the role faculty members play outside the University.
Miller did fill out his state conflict of interest forms and did not participate in the bidding conversation according to Nichols.
Miller, who received $1,500 plus expenses for two days of consulting, said, “It’s not only not unusual, it’s expected. As faculty, we’re expected to be practitioners engaged in whatever our field of knowledge is out in the community.”
“It’s not only not unusual, it’s expected. As faculty we’re expected to be practitioners engaged in whatever our field of knowledge is out in the community,” Miller said.
Miller received compensation from Sonic Foundry for his involvement with the advisory board. Since the company is based in Wisconsin, Miller said he had to have compensation for the days he would take off from work, and for travel. Sonic Foundry also included stock options in his compensation package.
“[Miller] never exercised the options, and in fact the options have expired,” Nichols said.
Miller said he has not received compensation since 2005.
Marc Hoit, vice chancellor of the office of information technology, said Central IT bought between 50 and 52 Mediasite appliances this past year.
“We paid $440,000. They are around $8,000 to $9,000 apiece,” Hoit said.
All 150 units cost the University more than $1 million, according to Packer.
Hoit said the purchase of 150 units of Mediasite appliances since 2004 “is not out of the realm of reasonable.”
Packer has also filed a complaint regarding the acquisition of lecture capture equipment with the Attorney General in his native state of Utah. The Utah Attorney General is investigating Weber State University’s purchase of Sonic Foundry appliances, according to the online publicationeCampus News.
Packer said he has yet to hear back from the N.C. Attorney General’s office about his complaint.
“Sometimes [the office] will make some inquiries to see if they want to take the issue to the level of an official investigation,” Packer said. “It just depends on how they want to proceed.”
Sonia Mashiah is a program assistant with the education section at the N.C. Attorney General’s office. She said requests from the public dealing in education would come through her.
“Usually when we get requests from the public, we usually try to respond to them with a written correspondence,” Mashiah said. “I am not familiar with anything that has come in from someone from Utah. I haven’t seen any sort of request for an incident and investigation.”
