Atlanta city attorney fires back at allegations in inspector general report
ATLANTA - Atlanta's city attorney is firing back at allegations from the city's inspector general that officials showed favoritism during the bidding process for a 311 software system.
On Wednesday, the Office of the Inspector General released a 29-page report claiming that policy violations gave one vendor an unfair advantage.
"We found that there were communications that had happened in advance of a request for proposal," Shannon Manigault, Atlanta's Inspector General, told FOX 5.
She claimed that the vendor used its connections to Mayor Andre Dickens’ transition team to gain access to city officials.
Atlanta Inspector General goes one-on-one with FOX 5
Atlanta’s Inspector General has dropped a new report accusing the city of favoritism in a bid for its 311 system. The mayor’s office has slammed that report as "wholly unprofessional" as some city officials want limits to put on the Inspector General’s Office.
The report became just the latest chapter in a bitter back-and-forth between the watchdog agency and the Dickens administration.
On Thursday night, City Attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker turned to FOX 5 to dispute the report's findings.
"The conclusions that she made were based upon a flawed and - basically flawed information," Perkins-Hooker said. "It's out of control. She has been weaponizing her operations not to try to provide advice to the city to help improve it, but to use it for political purposes. And this is an example of that."
City Attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker
The city wrote a letter responding to the report, calling it "erroneous" and criticizing the OIG’s investigative methods as "wholly unprofessional and inappropriate."
The OIG was established in 2020 in the wake of a federal investigation into a pay-to-play scheme at City Hall.
Earlier this year, Manigault reported to the city council that there was a widespread effort to obstruct her office’s work.
The mayor then formed a task force to inspect the inspector general.
The Atlanta City Council will soon consider recommendations from the task force to limit the OIG's authority.