Members of the State Contracting Standards Board (SCSB) discussed possible enforcement actions against the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) after the department has ignored multiple requests for information related to a statutorily required audit, including removing DEEP’s ability to enter contracts. Since October of 2023, the SCSB staff and chief procurement officer have sent multiple requests to DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes and Chief of Staff Andrew Hoskins, most of which have gone unanswered well past the SCSB’s audit deadline of June 30, 2024. The SCSB had requested materials related to five contracts between DEEP and private vendors for repair to the Pachaug Dam, consulting, and energy efficiency services. Most of the contracts were not competitively bid, according to contracting report from the Office of Policy and Management. The SCSB often finds itself at odds with governors and executive branch agencies given their enforcement capabilities, and the board was only recently granted funding for its full contingent of staff by the General Assembly. The Lamont administration in the past has argued the SCSB is duplicative, pointing to the Auditors of Public Accounts, which regularly audits and issues reports on state agencies, but without the ability to enforce any of their findings.
State contracting board mulls removing DEEP’s contracting authority