Baltimore Sun (12/11/12) Luke Broadwater

The city of Baltimore intends to extend Digicon Corp. and Telecommunications Systems Inc.’s contracts for an additional six months. The two staffing firms provide information technology employees for the city. Baltimore Comptroller Joan Pratt has criticized the city’s reliance on the two staffing firms over concerns the city made purchases from Digicon under a different contract, bypassing the competitive bidding process. The mayor’s office says the purchases were appropriate, but the administration said in September it was expanding the number of IT staffing firms with which it works from two to about 50. The six-month extension of the Digicon and Telecommunications Systems contracts will buy the city time to implement a more broad-based staffing system, says Chris Tonjes, the city’s chief information officer.