Employees of the Missouri Department of Transportation and state Highway Patrol have served on the HELP Inc. board of directors in the past, as is the case currently for employees of 19 other states. The HELP nonprofit provides the now-longstanding PrePass bypass service in a majority of U.S. states in public-private partnership arrangements.
Those connections between state employees and HELP, however, have come under scrutiny, and their cozy relationships are being blamed, at least in part, for the delay in implementation of PrePass competitor Drivewyze, another national bypass service provider. HELP, meanwhile, contends that delays in Drivewyze deployment in Missouri are instead due to Drivewyze’s lack of investment in necessary sensory equipment in the state.
Allegations of conflicts of interest emerged in press reports in the spring of last year against Missouri highway patrol and DOT employees as the implementation of Drivewyze’s bypass service there seemed to be getting a new life after years of not getting off the ground. Missouri DOT and highway patrol employees serving on HELP boards withdrew from those boards around the same time, and an official audit was begun into the question of whether conflicts of interest were real.
Missouri’s state auditor announced findings last week, April 26, issuing a lengthy, detailed report about potential violations of law and state employees’ conflicts of interest in efforts engaged on behalf of HELP’s PrePass service.
As auditor Nicole Galloway put it in a press release issued by her office, the report “outlines years of improper communications and actions that led to one vendor being unfairly favored over another. Just as concerning is the appearance that these allegations were not taken seriously by state officials until much later, as our work was bringing the details to light.” Though the Missouri highway patrol in May 2017 announced it had conducted an internal review of conflicts of interest and employees would no longer serve on HELP’s board, the DOT in the state did not launch an official review until November of that same year.
Missouri highway patrol and DOT employees involved with HELP, the state auditor said, attempted to influence contracting decisions in Texas, Kansas and Minnesota by advocating for HELP and steering states away from competitors. In one instance, the auditor says, a state employee attended a conference and discussed the intention to endorse the services of HELP.
Perhaps more seriously for former Missouri state employees, within a year after leaving state employment, three were subsequently hired by or contracted with HELP. Two had business-related communications with the state of Missouri, including with former subordinates, the press release from the auditor notes, adding that Missouri law requires former state employees to wait at least a year after leaving state employment before performing any paid service in which they would attempt to influence decisions of an agency where they had supervisory duties. Former state employees also are prohibited from performing any paid service that relates to any decision in which they were directly concerned or personally participated while they were employed by the state.
