On its surface, the controversy looks obvious.  I mean, the guy winning the no-bid contract had a relative in the relevant office of the school department:

Astro of New England, a different moving company, first raised issues with the bidding process after Astro owner Chuck Lamendola said he noticed Jada had been awarded work in late June without him ever seeing the district advertising the work publicly.

He also highlighted that Jada owner David Oliver is cousins with the school district’s facility director, Kevin Oliver, whose name appeared on Jada contract paperwork submitted over the past couple of months to the School Committee.

On the other hand, consider that Jada doesn’t have the relevant licensing, which is probably just a matter of paperwork, but has already been doing such work as a subcontractor under Astro.  That framing changes the coloring a little, to make Astro seem like an unnecessary middleman kept in the game through the state’s licensing regime.  One might wonder whether there’s anything to find in Lamendola’s family and friend network, too.

Rhode Islanders have long joked about the need to “know a guy” to get things rolling in our state, given our institutionalized corruption.  As different factions of people who know different “guys” compete in that sort of system, who gets pegged with corruption violations becomes like a game of musical chairs.