Convicted Felon Paid $183,900 to Manage $70M Contract Bid for Providence Schools
GoLocalProv News Team
Convicted Felon Paid $183,900 to Manage $70M Contract Bid for Providence Schools
The consultant hired is a man named Mark Heroux, the founder and managing partner of Performance Resource Partners — the firm is located in Holbrook, Massachusetts, in Heroux's home.
It is unclear why the public agency with nearly two dozen top-paid administrators needed to hire a firm to manage a public bid. A GoLocal report published in December of 2022 found that the top 18 executives in the Providence Public School Department earned on average more than $157,000.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBut despite the top-level staffing, Providence Schools hired Heroux, who was convicted of financial crimes tied to maintenance work in a federal building in Boston in the 1990s.
According to Providence School records and confirmed by the agency, the contract for Heroux was for $183,900.
Court documents secured by GoLocal show that Heroux was the facilities manager for Ogden Corporation — the company that had the contract at the O’Neill Federal Building. Heroux created a scheme in which he falsified payroll records and created “ghost” employees.
“The version of events in the Presentence Report, as submitted by AUSA Robert Richardson, depicts Mark Heroux as the initiator and director of this scheme as well as the person who had the final say on all decisions regarding this scheme. The government's version has Mark Heroux suggesting this scheme to Alice Beamer and making it appear that Mark Heroux had to approve of who would be the so-called ghost employee,” according to court documents.
Heroux illegally collected tens of thousands of dollars before his scheme was uncovered.
The Providence Public School Department, who signed the contract with Heroux, admitted that they were unaware of his prior conviction after repeated requests.
Providence Schools’ spokesperson Jay Wegimont, said in an email to GoLocal, “When selecting a vendor, PPSD reviews the vendor’s qualifications including relevant work experience. In cases where employees of a vendor will have direct, unsupervised contact with students, we require that those employees receive a criminal background checks. We do not conduct background checks for all employees of a vendor outside of these circumstances.”
“PPSD was not aware of the prior conviction,” Wegimont added.
In the phone interview with GoLocal, Heroux first said, “I don’t have permission to talk to anyone about Providence, including news folks.”
When asked about his conviction, Heroux said, "I don’t think this is something that needs to be said. Let me at least check with [Providence Public Schools]."
Heroux claimed that his contract with the Providence Schools prohibited him from speaking.
But, Heroux told GoLocal when asked if Providence School officials were aware of his conviction, “Yea, they are. Yup.”
As an ongoing GoLocal investigation has uncovered, the company awarded the $70 plus million contract is ABM, a firm that has been cited repeatedly by federal and state agencies for wage fraud and safety issues.
ABM reached an agreement just over a year ago to pay $140 million to thousands of its California workers to resolve a 15-year-long consolidated case over ABM's timekeeping system, which employees alleged caused them to be underpaid.
In addition, ABM has been cited dozens of times for wage fraud and work safety issues, according to the website Violation Tracker.
A Frontline special broadcast on PBS found that ABM was one of the violators of workers' rights. SEE FRONTLINE EPISODE BELOW
The one-hour segment was titled “Rape on the Night Shift” and chronicled the cases of abuse of Latina workers and cited examples of sexual assaults.
After GoLocal reached out to the company and multiple employees to seek comment on the legal issues on the initial stories, ABM's Michael Valentino, Senior Director, External Communications and Media Relations, sent a statement about the company's new safety procedures but refused to answer specific questions about the violation and penalties the company has incurred.
ABM said, "The claims in these settlements are not reflective of our operations today. We are committed to providing all team members with a workplace environment consistent with our values of integrity, respect, and trust. This includes complying with all applicable laws and regulations governing the wages, hours, and working conditions of our team members. ABM also maintains a Compliance Hotline where team members can ask any questions or raise concerns, including their safety, or errors regarding their time or pay. This Compliance Hotline is administered by a third party, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in multiple languages.”
But, the vast majority of the violations, penalties, and multi-million settlements took place during the tenure of now-CEO Scott Salmirs in 2015.
ABM won the contract from the Providence School Department over long-time contractors Aramark and another bidder UG2.
“I am deeply disturbed, and it’s a point of conversation with the office,” said Erlin Rogel, chair of the Providence School Board, after reading the initial GoLocal report.
When asked if the Providence School Department staff had briefed the school board on ABM’s track record, Rogel said they did not.
And, when asked if he thought the School Department staff had looked into ABM’s record as part of the review process for the $70 plus million contract, Rogel said he did not know.
“We need to get an understanding of these issues,” said Rogel.
“First and foremost, we need to be sure there are protections for workers,” said Rogel.