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 the time, Parker was president of Idaho Young Republicans and a lobbyist for the Idaho Water Users Association.

He is now a possible candidate to succeed GOP Chairman Norm Semanko should Semanko be elected Eagle mayor in November.

Patranabish’s Boise company, AnalyzeSoft, 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. The disqualification period began in July.

Five AnalyzeSoft employees who worked on a contract for the Department of Correction are barred “from ever working any more state projects,” according to Department of Administration Director Teresa Luna. Patranabish is not subject to the lifetime disqualification, she said.

In an audio recording obtained by the Idaho Statesman under Idaho’s open records law, state Purchasing Manager Mark Little told a state investigator that Parker and Patranabish came to his office early in 2007.

Little said the pair asked “how they could get a contract or something to that effect, yes, without going through the competitive process, just be handed one or some such.”

They also asked if Patranabish could bill for travel and per diem on the existing IDOC contract, Little said.

Little said he told them neither was possible.

“I can’t just go out and give contracts out to people ... without going through the competitive bid process,” Little told IDOC investigator Jim Loucks in September 2007. As for additional expenses, “the hourly rate is a fully loaded hourly rate.”

Patranabish was charging $85 an hour, the highest rate allowed.

FAVOR FOR A NEW FRIEND

Parker told the Statesman he introduced Patranabish to Little as a favor to a friend. The pair met at a Young Republicans event, Parker said, adding that he did not charge Patranabish or register as a lobbyist on his behalf.

“I wasn’t lobbying anything,” Parker said. “I wasn’t advocating anything. All I was doing was I introduced some people. That’s it. You can’t be responsible for their activities and their business and everything.”

Patranabish has declined repeated requests for comment since May, when he said, “I am eating my dinner right now. I have to get back to you.”

Otter also declined comment for this story, including questions about whether he was notified of the meeting with Little and why the state continued to contract with Patranabish for more than three years after documentation of serious problems.

Patranabish was fired from a job at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in 2006 because of billing irregularities. In 2007, ethical questions were raised by an IDOC internal inquiry.

“Our response is coming from our directors,” said Otter spokesman Jon Hanian, referring to Luna at Administration and Brent Reinke at IDOC. In May, Otter also declined comment on two stories about AnalyzeSoft and IDOC.

In emails to the Statesman, Luna and Reinke did not reply to questions regarding Parker and Patranabish, or why AnalyzeSoft was allowed to continue doing state work after red flags were raised.

Semanko, now Parker’s boss at the Idaho GOP, was also Parker’s boss at the Idaho Water Users Association when Parker took Patranabish to see the purchasing manager.

Parker ran Semanko’s 2005-06 campaign for Congress from Idaho’s 1st District. From July 2007 to January 2009, Parker was district director for the eventual victor, Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho.

“I wasn’t involved in any way, shape or form,” Semanko said, adding that Parker was not representing the Water Users when he introduced Patranabish to Little.

As an Eagle city councilman, Semanko said he has confidence in the competitive bidding process required by law. But he said he has no comment on any role his subordinate played in attempting to skirt it. “I just don’t know enough to form an opinion on it,” he said.

Semanko also questioned what, if any, clout Parker had in early 2007. “Jonathan was not exactly what you would call a plugged-in mover and shaker back then. He was still wet behind the ears, getting started in his career.”

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Parker, 32, said he met Patranabish, 41, in 2006 and that they “struck up a friendship.” Patranabish asked for advice on getting state contracts, including work for IDOC, Parker said. Parker said he suggested meeting with Little but said he can’t recall how he knew Little or set up the meeting. “He was like, ‘Would you come with me?’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ ”

Little said he doesn’t have a record of the date of the meeting, except that he told Loucks that it was early in 2007. He said the meeting may have been “impromptu” and unscheduled.

Parker, who worked as a lobbyist for 2› years before joining Sali’s staff, said he admired Patranabish. Born in India, Patranabish became a U.S. citizen in 2009. Patranabish typically hired Indian nationals with work visas.

“We had coffee and really hit it off,” Parker said. “Quite frankly, I was really impressed with him, being an entrepreneur and moving here from India and working hard and being successful and fulfilling the American Dream.”

Parker said he doesn’t understand Patranabish’s business and let him do the talking with Little. “If I don’t know what I’m talking about, I don’t say anything.”

Asked if he is troubled by Little’s saying he and Patranabish inquired about winning state contracts outside the competitive process, Parker said, “Yeah, but I didn’t.” Parker said he doesn’t recall Patranabish making such a pitch, either.

WARDEN QUITS

Pam Sonnen, a 29-year IDOC official, raised questions about Patranabish and the department’s handling of the matter beginning in 2007, including how a federal grant was used for the project. Sonnen told the Statesman she retired in July 2011 because of her dissatisfaction. She said department employees overseeing the spending were not held accountable.

In fact, Chief of Management Services Tony Meatte and Deputy Chief Susan Fujinaga got raises in March. Information Services Manager Brad Alvaro, however, did not get a raise and left for a lower-paying job in May at another agency.

A year earlier, in February 2010, AnalyzeSoft workers were escorted from IDOC’s offices after an investigation showed they were working for other states on Idaho’s time and equipment, as well as looking for work and shopping.

Sonnen said that with Otter running for reelection in 2010, “I just kept getting the impression from the director (Brent Reinke) that somebody at the governor’s office didn’t want this out. It was odd to me that all this unethical, illegal behavior could go on, and it just seemed like nothing happened. Nothing.”

A 2010 internal IDOC investigation quoted one official who warned against ending the contract for work by AnalyzeSoft because it could threaten completion of the Correctional Information System.

The official, whose name was removed from the report provided to the Statesman by IDOC, also worried what would happen if the problems became public.

“Should this scenario ever ‘get out,’ there (is) a possible perception of impropriety by continuing to do business with folks who have ‘stolen from the state’ during a budget crisis,” wrote the official.

Sonnen, 52, was promoted to chief of prisons in 2007, after Otter appointed Reinke. She said she was demoted in December 2010 to warden of the South Idaho Correctional Institution because of her persistent questions. “I’d never seen anything like it before in all the time I was in corrections. I’d had enough.”

In an email, Reinke defended IDOC, citing the firing of AnalyzeSoft in 2010, its internal investigation, and referrals for legal action to the Ada County sheriff’s, prosecutor’s offices and the attorney general.

“Was there some sort of conspiracy to cover up criminal wrongdoing?” Reinke wrote. “Absolutely not. The facts show IDOC was up front and trying to sound the alarm by urging independent investigators to examine this case pledging to them our full cooperation.”

Ada County prosecutors said they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was criminal intent to defraud or other criminal intent.

Reinke did not address Sonnen’s allegations about the involvement of Otter’s office.

But in a memo to his staff Wednesday, written in anticipation of this story, Reinke wrote: “I hold Pam in the highest regard. For 29 years she served the people of the state of Idaho with distinction, and she is certainly entitled to her opinions. But as this matter plays out in the press, I want you to know I respectfully disagree with her.”

Dan Popkey: 377-6438