Aramark to Pay $65,000 for Overbilling Pennsylvania Prison
Pennsylvania's Dauphin County Prison (DCP) will receive $65,000 from its food service vendor due to overbilling. The settlement comes on the heels of a several-month grand jury investigation started in 2004 to examine allegations of watered-down food and overcharging.
The agreement, which was reached in September 2005, concludes there was no criminal intent on the part of the vendor, Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp., to overbill the county, said the countys District Attorney, Edward M. Marsico, Jr.
Aramark has served food to DCP prisoners for the last 11 years. Its contract paid for each meal served. Instead, Aramark had been charging a flat amount for meals instead of tracking the ups and downs of the jail's population. "I'm very pleased with the amount of money we received," Marsico said. "I believed it more than covers any loss the county may have had."
In 2004, Aramark was awarded a five-year contract, which could be worth as much as $4.2 million. The investigation was spurred by prisoner complaints.
The probe concluded Aramark was providing the required meal content. Complaints by prisoners were dismissed as individual tastes adverse to institutional food.
PLN has previously reported on Aramark's history of cooking unsanitary food and shorting entrée items.
Additional sources: The Patriot News, Times Leader
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