A federal audit of the state’s "Stronger Than the Storm" marketing campaign, launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and featuring Gov. Chris Christie in television commercials while seeking re-election, found "nothing improper" with the content of the ads, it was announced today.
But the federal investigation found some flaws with how the state awarded the contract for the controversial marketing campaign, saying officials did not fully comply with federal rules.
Christie’s office — and the East Rutherford-based firm that won the contract — welcomed the audit as vindication, saying its findings disproved claims of impropriety surrounding the marketing campaign.
Democrats criticized the governor’s appearances in the ads during his re-election campaign, and last year U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) called for a federal investigation.
Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Christie, said the audit "represents another rebuke to the partisan sniping and misinformation peddling on this matter from elected officials who hoped to score political points."
Pallone, who said earlier this year that he had asked the federal government to look into the campaign because he thought it "smelled," said he was pleased a full-scale audit had been issued.
"This review provides much-needed answers regarding the state’s campaign," he said.
The audit that was made public today found there was "nothing improper in the content of the state’s marketing campaign," but it said the "state did not procure services and products for its tourism marketing program in a manner that met the intent of all federal procurement requirements."
Specifically, the audit by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s office of inspector general found the state did not perform an independent cost estimate and analysis.
The audit also found that time sheets provided by MWW, a firm hired to oversee the ad campaign, did not initially meet federal requirements because it wasn’t signed by employees and did not account for time worked on other projects.
The audit said the problems occurred because the state was unaware of all the federal requirements and noted that the state had started to take steps to address the issues.
The MWW campaign included marketing events and advertising on television and radio, as well as on billboards and on the Web.
In an August 2013 letter to the federal government requesting the campaign review, Pallone raised concerns that MWW was awarded the contract though it was charging more than $2 million above a bid from another company that did not plan to include Christie in the campaign.
But the federal audit found that MWW had the lowest overall bid and "made no mention of using the governor in any media," while the losing bidder "proposed using the governor in social media."
Josh Zeitz, a senior vice president for MWW, said the main takeaway is that all "the claims that were levied against the company last summer and this winter were fully disproved."
Four contractors initially bid on the contract. After a committee established by the state completed a technical review and price comparison, MWW and the firm Weber Shandwick were selected as finalists.
MWW submitted a final offer of more than $22.4 million, including nearly $4.7 million in labor costs. Weber Shandwick’s final offer came in at nearly $27.3 million, with more than $2.5 million in labor costs.
The state has paid MWW $23 million for the marketing campaign. Of that, $3.5 million has gone toward the firm’s labor costs.
The auditors recommended that HUD further review the documents the state started to provide at the end of the audit to determine whether the contract and its costs were fair and reasonable.