The IG's investigation found that due to a typographical error in the spreadsheet's formula, the scores for all three vendors were flawed, with many points going uncounted.

The ITD procurement team never finalized or submitted the scoring document to the Patrick administration, and therefore the IG's office did not attempt to rework the calculations, according to the report.

Instead, after meeting with all three vendors the procurement team "unanimously felt that much more information had to be gathered because they did not adequately understand how various agencies and administrators would use performance management software," and recommended the procurement process be done over, the report states.

But on May 18, 2007, the acting CIO of ITD, Bethann Pepoli, told Henry Dormitzer, deputy to Patrick's secretary of administration and finance, Leslie Kirwan, that Cognos "was the best choice for performance management software procurement."

Dormitzer relayed the information to Kirwan, who subsequently signed an agreement to buy the software in August, the report states.

DiMasi allegedly met personally with Pepoli at some point to discuss the importance of performance management software, according to The Boston Globe. "The speaker and I never had a conversation about a vendor," Pepoli told the Globe. "I don't feel like my recommendation was influenced by any outside sources."

The ITD has "already approached us to help them go through the procurement process" as they once again seek to purchase performance management software," McCarthy said.

"It may not be Cognos' software," he noted.