Report: GOP official helped firm now banned from doing business with state

Idaho Statesman reporter Dan Popkey reports today that Jonathan Parker, now executive director of the Idaho Republican Party, arranged a meeting between consultant Arup Patranabish and Idaho’s top purchasing official shortly after GOP Gov. Butch Otter took office in 2007, at which the consultant  asked for help to skirt the state bidding process and get a contract “handed” to his firm. Patranabish’s Boise company, AnalyzeSoft, now has been disqualified from doing business with the state for one year because it allegedly double-billed the Idaho Department of Correction, charging $2 million for an inmate tracking system that remains incomplete, Popkey reports; you can read his full report here .