The Facts

A city audit found former chief assistant treasurer Tajel Shah steered a tax-software procurement toward Mechanical Orchard through an undisclosed friendship with one of the firm’s executives. Auditors said staff handling both the discovery project and later bid process made repeated decisions that unfairly benefited the company.

The deal involved a contract worth up to $10 million.

The Context

The procurement was tied to replacing the city’s business-tax system, which the Treasurer-Tax Collector had already said was reaching end of life. That system helps administer billions in city revenue, so the stakes were high.

The GrowSF Take

The scandal is real, but this is not a case where nobody noticed.

An earlier bid-rigging probe put the issue on the radar, then auditors confirmed serious procurement misconduct. That shows that San Francisco's watchdogs work.