The Ridge administration is about to switch management of the state's $120-million-a-year prescription drug program for state workers to a firm with close political and financial ties to the governor.

But administration officials and program administrators say politics did not affect their decision to award a three-year state contract that will pay Eagle Managed Care - a subsidiary of the Rite Aid Corp. in Camp Hill, near Harrisburg - at least $3.6 million.

The contract involves administration of the program that provides prescribed drugs to 85,000 state workers and their 122,000 dependents, as well as 52,400 state retirees with 30,000 dependents.

``Our business is to manage the benefits for commonwealth employees and at a cost that's efficient . . . As far as I was concerned, it was them hands down,'' said Edward Keller, vice chairman of the board of the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund, the program overseer.

Keller is one of seven union reps on the 14-member board.

The current contract is held - and has been for over a decade - by New Jersey-based National Prescription Administrators.

State officials said there are no problems under the current contract, and that the work was put out to bid because of rising drug costs and to ``test the market.''

Ridge officials said several national companies bid on the contract, including its current holder, and that the Rite Aid firm offered the state the best deal.

Asked whether politics played a role in the award, Ridge's secretary of administration, Thomas G. Paese said, ``It absolutely did not.''

Paese, the fund chairman, said the contract was approved 14-0, and that he is ``happy it's a Pennsylvania company'' and that it will ``save the state money.''

When asked whether the administration is concerned about the appearance of favoritism, Paese said, ``I was more offended by the fact the thing had not been bid for so many years.''

Rite Aid's retired chief executive officer, Alex Grass, and its new executive vice president, William A.K. Titelman, are longtime Ridge supporters.

They reportedly raised $230,000 for Ridge in 1995 at a dinner at Titelman's home.

They also are so-called ``directors'' of the Governor's Club, an exclusive Ridge fund-raising organization that requires a pledge of $50,000.

Grass personally gave Ridge $70,000 between 1994 and 1997. His son, Rite Aid chief Martin L. Grass of Lutherville, Md., gave Ridge $500. Rite Aid's political action committee gave $31,500.

Titelman, a lawyer with the Pittsburgh-based firm Klett, Lieber, Rooney & Schorling, and a lobbyist for Rite Aid, PECO, Bell Atlantic, Hertz and many other major companies, is married to Maria Keating Titelman, Ridge's deputy chief of staff.

Rite Aid on Jan. 19 named Titelman vice president for ``managed care and government affairs.''

Rite Aid officials couldn't be reached for comment.

From 1994 to 1997, Titelman personally gave or directed more than $90,000 to Ridge through two PACs and personal donations. His wife also gave to Ridge before he became governor, donating a total $10,800 as a state Senate employee in 1993 and 1994, records show.

Rite Aid, unlike National Prescription, owns drugstores - more than 4,000 nationwide, with revenues of $12 billion per year.