Prince William County officials are investigating an alleged bid-rigging scheme between a vendor and a former county worker.
The employee in the Office of Information Technology “potentially awarded a contract to a vendor with whom there was an alleged financial relationship with the OIT employee,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart.
County Executive Craig Gerhart directed the Division of Internal Audit and the Police Department to investigate. As an interim step, two employees in the information technology office were placed on routine administrative leave with pay, as per the county’s personnel policy. Another employee was fired.
Officials do not know how long the potential scheme may have been going on, Stewart said. The names of the employees were not released.
A county supervisor’s office was notified of a potential problem, and the issue was turned over to the internal audit department, Stewart said.
He stressed that none of the accusations has been confirmed.
The Office of Internal Audit was created a little more than a year ago.
“The speed with which they’ve been able to come … to the situation to flush it out has been incredibly fast,” Stewart said. “They’re incredibly effective and efficient.”
Stewart said an audit of the Office of Information Technology was already being conducted when the auditor’s office was told about the problem.
The Board of Supervisors dissolved the Gainesville Volunteer Fire Department in January, after a four-month internal audit revealed a number of deficiencies and caused Fire Chief Kevin McGee to say that he had “lost confidence” in the department’s leadership.
Supervisors then directed Gerhart and McGee to review sections of the county code that would help the county’s management and oversight of the fire and rescue system.
