Case Study: Food Services

Case Study: Food Services

Questionable verbal agreements to modify the terms of a contract between Aramark and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for food services at the Noble Correctional Institution led to a special audit conducted by the state auditor in the summer of 2001. The audit showed that during a 23-month period, the state of Ohio had paid Aramark $2.1 million more than required by the original written contract.

Approximately three months into the contract, the basis for payment was modified through verbal agreements, from actual meals served as stipulated in the contract to a percentage of the average weekly inmate population. The formula for payment assumed that 90 percent of the weekly inmate population received three meals each day even though actual meal counts at the time the agreement was made showed that only about 64 percent of inmates ate the meals available to them. Three months later, the formula was changed to 100 percent of the weekly inmate population after the inmate population at the prison declined.

The Aramark contract expired in the fall of 2000. Food services are currently provided by state employees after their union submitted a proposal that was about $1 million less than the bid submitted by Aramark.

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