This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 14, 2011 - Fresh off of one political controversy, new state Auditor Tom Schweich is about to step into another.
Schweich, a Republican, announced today that his office will conduct an audit of the state Department of Revenue's contracts -- and how they're awarded -- to the 183 private fee offices around the state that issue licenses for drivers and vehicles, and vehicle titles.
"The audit will review the procurement of contract agents and the operating procedures of select license offices," Schweich's staff said in a statement.
Such an audit would be a first in the state for a process that until recently was openly political. Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, spearheaded legislative changes in 2009 to require that the contracts be awarded via a bid process, a move that began under his Republican predecessor, Matt Blunt.
Until Blunt began putting the contracts up for bid during the latter part of his term (2005-2009), the contracts had traditionally been awarded to friends and allies of whoever was governor.
Blunt came under heavy fire in 2005 and 2006 over his administration's move to privatize the 11 state-run license offices and to allow private management firms -- run by political allies -- to serve as unmonitored middlemen between the 183 offices (including the formerly state-run operations) and the Department of Revenue.
In 2006 and 2008, the auditor's office -- under Democrats Claire McCaskill and Susan Montee -- did examine the privatizing of the state license offices, but otherwise left the private fee offices untouched.
Schweich, a Republican, had made it a campaign promise to examine the contracts and to determine whether politics continues to play a behind-the-scenes role in who gets them and who doesn't. The impetus was a lawsuit filed last year by a Blunt ally, Michael Becker, who contended that he lost his fee-office contract under Nixon because of a biased bid process. The Department of Revenue has denied any impropriety.
In any case, Schweich is citing the 2009 law granting the state auditor authority to examine the private fee-office contracts and operations. Aides say his staff will likely conduct a random sampling of various fee offices around the state.
