Friday, May 15, 2020

A GREAT RETURN ON THEIR INVESTMENT

Earlier this week, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont seemed to reluctantly answer a question from a NBC Connecticut reporter when he acknowledged the contract to Boston Consulting Group. The contract was for $2 million dollars for Boston Consulting to guide the State of Connecticut through "re-opening" the State.

Didn't the Governor put together a panel of so-called "experts" to guide the re-opening goals. To the best of my knowledge, these experts all volunteered their time to spearhead these efforts and didn't cost us anything, let alone $2 million dollars.

I have to ask what expertise Boston Consulting has in this area since the pandemic is unprecedented and no one has expertise in uncharted territory. It seems to me as though Boston Consulting will be receiving on the job training from taxpayers of the State of Connecticut. It also makes me ask why none of the high priced State of Connecticut staff members couldn't manage this, since they most likely have as much experience as Boston Consulting in pandemic response.

I guess the answers may lie in the website opensecrets.org, a website that follows campaign donations. Open secrets lists  the Boston Consulting as a major donor to Democratic campaign operations. Here is their report on Boston Consulting and their donations, https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals?id=D000032055.

Apparently Boston Consulting is willing to hedge their bets. The report lists their donations to Democrat's campaign at roughly 80.58% ($244,279 for 2020) of their dollars, they were willing to also donate to Republican candidates totaling 19.42% ($58,874) for 2020.

It doesn't seem like a bad investment, sprinkle around some campaign contributions and get a $2 million dollar contract in the process. It's just too bad Lamont couldn't find a Connecticut company to help.