September 29, 2020
Mr. Justin P. Wilson
Comptroller of the Treasury
Tennessee State Capitol, First Floor
Nashville, TN 37243
RE: Audit Request — Gov. Bill Lee and Coronavirus Relief Funds
Mr. Wilson:
With the dual interests of protecting the fiscal integrity and reputation of our State and providing much-needed sunlight on the questionable spending practices of Governor Bill Lee and his administration, we write to respectfully request an audit of the Lee administration’s receipts and disbursements of all Federal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) dollars. As state legislators, we make this request in furtherance of our fiscal duty to Tennessee taxpayers and in the interest of full governmental transparence and accountability.
As you know, the $150 billion Federal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) was established by the signing of the CARES Act on March 27, 2020, thanks in large part to the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives. The funding provided by this Act, which represented the largest relief package ever passed by the U.S. Congress, was intended to assist state, local and tribal governments recover from the detrimental economic impacts of COVID-19. Tennessee received over $2.3 billion in relief through the CRF. To oversee fiscal management of this CARES Act funding received by our state, Governor Lee formed die Stimulus Financial Accountability Group (SFAG). It is unclear whether or not the SFAG has been able to fully perform the important task assigned to it, or if it was perfunctorily created or prohibited from performing its assigned task in any manner.
Our sincere fiscal concerns stem from the Lee administration’s well-documented history of awarding no-bid contracts to vendors. For instance, earlier this year, the Tennessee Department of Education, with Gov. Lee’s blessing, awarded a $1.2 million nobid contract to Florida-based ClassWallet to manage the early rollout of his unconstitutional voucher program. More recently, the local news media, including NewsChannel5, has reported on the Lee administration's $80 million, no-bid spending spree and our supercilious governor’s refusal to commit to return to normal bidding processes anytime in the foreseeable future.
Reported examples of Gov. Lee’s free-spending with CRF dollars include his $8.3 million no-bid contract with out-of-state Renfro Corp, to produce five million sock masks (“face socks”) which were treated with a registered pesticide. Gov. Lee sent these face socks to county health departments and public school teachers before the state ultimately ceased all distribution, wasting millions of precious dollars. Another example of Gov. Lee’s fiscal irresponsibility was his overpriced, no-bid $6.8 million deal with Pale Horse GRS, a small security company that the Lee administration reportedly paid Pale Horse $2.55 per N-95 mask while it paid another vendor 54 cents for the same masks. Additionally, even one of our legislative colleagues who owns a furniture company got in on the act and reportedly secured a deal with Gov. Lee’s administration to supply $165,000 worth of hospital gowns at $5.50 per gown, an amount nearly double charged by other vendors.
Fair questions about political connections and favoritism to supporters have been raised about the reasons for Gov. Lee’s highly suspect business dealings on behalf of our state. Whether Governor Bill Lee is simply guilty of fiscal mismanagement and/or administrative incompetence or whether he has abused his broad emergency powers to enrich political allies and donors with no-bid state contracts are questions worthy of investigation. At the very least, the people of Tennessee deserve to know how, where, and why their hard-earned tax dollars were spent and to whom they were paid.
As the Comptroller, you are uniquely positioned and empowered to provide Tennesseans the answers and transparency they rightfully expect and deserve. Thank you, in advance, for your timely response and willingness to have your office investigate as requested.
Sincerely,
Rep. John Ray Clemmons
Rep Karen Camper
Rep. Mike Stewart
Rep. Bill Beck
Rep. Barbara Cooper
Rep. Vincent Dixie
Rep. Gloria Johnson
Rep. London Lamar
Rep. Larry Miller
Rep. Jason Potts
Rep. Jason Powell
Rep. Dwayne Thompson