FORMER DC EMPLOYEE FILES WHISTLEBLOWER LAWSUIT AGAINST THE DISTRICT IN THE WAKE OF BID CONTRACT INVESTIGATION BY COUNCILWOMAN MARY CHEH
Former DGS Associate Director Yinka Alao details whistleblower allegations against the District and City Administrator Young in complaint filed in DC Superior Court.
Washington, DC, December 6, 2016 – Yinka Alao, the former DC Department of General Services (DGS) Associate Director for Contracting and Procurement, is fighting back against public allegations made by City Administrator Rashad Young and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s spokesman Rob Hawkins that his termination resulted from improper actions he took in the performance of his official duties. In a complaint filed yesterday, Mr. Alao details the real facts and circumstances that led to his termination – that the Mayor’s office wanted him to give special treatment in a bidding process to one of the Mayor’s campaign donors. When Mr. Alao refused to do so, he was fired.
Alao, a 10-year DC employee who previously led the “Procurement Integrity and Compliance Office” for the city’s Office of Contracting and Procurement, was abruptly placed on administrative leave on August 15, 2016 and separated from the government on August 30, 2016. This came after Mr. Alao approved the bid of Gilbane Building Co. (Gilbane), one of the nation’s largest construction firms, to redevelop the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus – the future site of the Washington Wizards Basketball practice facility. Gilbane’s approved bid was roughly $6 million and about $10 million less than the bid submitted by a major longtime donor to D.C. Mayor Muriel Browser, Fort Meyer Construction (FMC). FMC’s bid was not chosen. Despite the fact that Mr. Alao’s decision saved $10 million taxpayer dollars, he was summarily terminated after FMC apparently complained to Mayor Bowser’s administration.
Darrell Chambers, Principal Attorney at The Chambers Firm, filed the suit on behalf of Mr. Alao:
“As is clear from the complaint, several high-ranking officials at the Executive Office of the Mayor, DMPED and the City Administrator’s office applied unprecedented pressure on Mr. Alao to cancel the Buzzard Point and St. Elizabeth’s contract awards and to re-bid those contracts, in an obvious attempt to award them to Ft. Myer. This case is eerily similar to the Eric Payne matter, which resulted in a $1.7 million verdict against the District on November 22 of this year. It remains to be seen what the attorney’s fees amount to in that case, but that litigation began in 2010 so I suspect the fees are significant – possibly over $1 million. Unfortunately, instead of admitting mistakes and immediately redressing the mistakes and making whole the innocent people whose lives are turned upside-down by them, the District is content to litigate these disputes for years upon years in the hopes that a different administration with no accountability is in power when they are hit by a large jury verdict. The only people adversely affected are the victims of this cronyism and District residents who have to foot the bill.”
D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh is currently investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Alao’s termination.