Baltimore Mayor's Office: Phone Contract Competitively Bid

BALTIMORE (AP) -- The mayor's office says a contract for phone and network equipment was competitively bid.

A spokesman for the mayor said Thursday that city employees requested the purchase, not the more than two dozen consultants in the mayor's information technology office who work for the Rockville company that won the contract.

City Comptroller Joan Pratt raised concerns Wednesday about the purchase from Digicon Corp. because of the number of the company's employees working in the technology office. Pratt says the mayor is trying to take the project from Pratt's office and avoid competitive bidding requirements -- at taxpayers' expense.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has demanded an apology, saying the transactions were proper.

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