A woman who says she was hired by the state Department of Education to manage its program to use solar and wind energy to cut electrical costs at all public schools says department officials wanted to award a potentially billion-dollar contract to a vendor whose bid was flawed and could wind up costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars more than the other vendor’s proposal.
Sarah McCann filed a whistle-blower lawsuit in state court Friday against schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and the DOE. She contends she was fired in June for writing an audit critical of the preferred vendor’s bid and for refusing a superior’s order to destroy the report.
McCann says in her lawsuit that she was hired Nov. 4 to work with the department’s Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Master Plan program. She said one of her responsibilities was to write the second-phase request for proposals to select a vendor. The first-phase RFP was to assess vendor qualifications.
In March, McCann says, the DOE transferred her within the department, increased her pay and named her EESMP program manager. She said the DOE told her she would manage the program from the selection of a vendor through the completion of the program, which would take five to seven years.
After the first phase of the RFP process, McCann said, the DOE named two qualified vendors: Chevron Energy Solutions and Prime Solutions Inc.
The winning company’s contract would provide electricity from wind, solar or other alternative power at a reduced cost to the DOE.
While the DOE selection committee was evaluating the bids from Chevron and Prime, McCann said, one of her superiors asked her to conduct an audit of the two proposals.
She said her May 28 report found the Chevron bid to be unresponsive to the RFP and concluded that it would cost the state at least $284 million in lost savings. She recommended that the selection committee disqualify the bid and award the contract to Prime, which submitted the lower bid.
McCann said the department’s procurement officer instructed her superior to instruct her to destroy all copies of her audit because it could be used as evidence that the DOE improperly conducted the selection process.
Around June 5, McCann said, her supervisor expressed a desire to terminate her for raising concern about the procurement process to the supervisor’s superior and for suggesting that her supervisor was intent on selecting Chevron without any justification for its higher bid.
Five days later, McCann said, her lawyer sent a letter to a lawyer for the state attorney general, informing him of the illegal instruction by McCann’s superior to destroy her audit. It also mentioned McCann’s fear of retaliation and her desire for a fair RFP process.
McCann’s lawyer also represents Prime Solutions.
On June 24, McCann says, the DOE terminated her from her job.
DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz says McCann was not terminated. She said McCann was an 89-day hire, a term that ended in late June.
"There was no reason to extend her," Dela Cruz said.
