A federal grand jury is to investigate the process surrounding the awarding of a $38million contract to run the District of Columbia’s lottery (DC Lottery). The investigation relates to a contract awarded to Greek firm Intralot back in 2009 and is just the latest in a long line of corruption allegations being leveled against members of the city’s government.
The jury will investigate crimes that include bribery and the illegal steering of contracts with the case reportedly involving more officials than any more of the litany of corruption cases against the city’s politicians. Doug Patton, a lobbyist and former mayor was involved in one of the losing bids and told HeraldOnline.com: “This is one of the worst processes, if not the worst, that I’ve seen in 45 years of government service, both federal and local. The quicker they get to the bottom of this, the better.”
Controversy surrounding the process were first aired back in September 2011 when three DC council members called for an investigation into alleged “anomalies” in the awarding of the contract to Intralot. It related to Intralot’s local partner – Veteran Services Corp. – being given a 51 percent stake in the DC Lottery contract despite not being part of the bidding process.
CalvinAyre.com contacted Intralot for comment but by the time the article went to press they hadn’t got back to us. The suggestion that something underhand went on with the awarding of this contract is nothing new. For once the blame isn’t falling at the door of the gambling industry firm and the corruption seems to be endemic in the make-up of the city’s government.
