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The state’s decision to award a contract estimated at $135 million to Deloitte, the same company that built Florida’s failed unemployment system, has a government watchdog calling for reform.

In its report, Florida Taxwatch calls the award hard to believe.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration never considered Deloitte Consulting’s negative recommendation over its building of the state’s failed unemployment system before picking the company for the new contract.

Bob Nave, Vice President for Research at Florida TaxWatch believes it should have.

“The overarching issue is to take a look at our procurement system and just do a complete overhaul,” said Nave.

The TaxWatch VP has 27 years of experience in state government.

“The state’s track record with respect to large technology platforms has not been real good,” said Nave.

The Governor has been vocal about how the unemployment system has performed.

“It’s a clunker. There’s no doubt about it,” said DeSantis during a press conference earlier this year.

The Governor has also asked his Inspector General to investigation how the contract ballooned from 40 million to 77 million. Deloitte says its fee was 46.5 million. Tow other vendors were also on the contract.

“Obviously, I don’t want Deloitte getting contracts personally because we are investigating what happened with the unemployment system,” said DeSantis.

But when it comes to the AHCA award, the Governor said there is nothing he can do.

“They dropped their price so dramatically, that it’s not clear to me that at that point they could have be denied it on neutral grounds. Maybe if you inject this issue into it,” said DeSantis.

We’ve used the word estimated when it comes to the final price the state would pay Deloitte.

That’s because the company and other bidders call their final price “a trade secret.”

The First Amendment Foundation has called it ‘absolutely ridiculous’ and a violation of Florida law.

In a statement, Jonathan Gandal, Managing Director, Deloitte said in part, “Deloitte received the highest score in an open and competitive procurement after an independent committee evaluated all the proposals and determined that we offered the best value to Florida taxpayers from both a technical and financial perspective.”

The company’s full statement is here:CONNECT:  “When we completed our work in May 2015, the state assumed responsibility for CONNECT’s ongoing maintenance and operations. At that time, CONNECT not only worked, it was processing reemployment assistance claims more efficiently and accurately than ever before. We do not know how CONNECT’s technology has been modified, upgraded or maintained since we have not worked on the system in more than five years. Deloitte was one of several vendors working on the CONNECT project. Over the life of our contract from 2011 to 2015, Deloitte was paid about $46.5 million, not $77 million.”