Dunleavy administration seeks do-over for part of Tshibaka's $5 million 'excellence project'

I call your attention to a state request for proposals that deserves public scrutiny as part of the U.S. Senate race and the reelection campaign of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Issued May 6 by the Department of Administration, it amounts to a costly do-over of a project that Kelly Tshibaka led during her two-year reign as administration commissioner under Dunleavy.

The so-called “Alaska Productivity and Excellence Project” contract went to Alvarez & Marsal under Tshibaka’s direction, costing up to $5 million.

Tshibaka gave the contract to Alvarez & Marsal even though a potential Alaska competitor, disqualified only because it did not list “legal services” on its proposal, offered a bid that was $400,000 lower.

What did the state get for the $5 million and why are parts of this exercise being repeated?

Those are among the key questions for the Dunleavy administration and Tshibaka.

Here is the executive summary of the Alvarez & Marsal procurement plan the state paid for, describing a consolidation effort that was supposed to have been completed last year.

Here is the executive summary of the information technology plan that was supposed to have been completed in 2020.

Every member of the Dunleavy cabinet signed onto an Oct. 24, 2019 letter saying how excited they were about consolidating information technology services under the excellence project and how it would lead to “unprecedented customer satisfaction” and save money. It would all be done by Dec. 1, 2020, they said.

I expect the state to claim that the new plan is not a do-over, but simply a supplement to previous work. However, the previous work was supposed to end with procurement consolidation and IT consolidation. I also expect the state to say that the pandemic messed up everything, though the pandemic made improved services more vital.

And I expect the Dunleavy administration to be less than forthcoming about what went wrong.

A big reason this is relevant is that Tshibaka, who quit her state job with no notice in March 2021 to run for the U.S. Senate, exaggerated the savings that had been achieved through this process that was never completed.

On Feb. 13, 2019, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed an executive order to consolidate procurement in the administration department. He said this would lead to staff reductions and better results.

“The purpose of this order is to streamline and increase accountability of non-construction procurement activities within the executive branch of state government by realigning non-construction procurement staff to create solid line reporting to the DOA Commissioner or Commissioner Designee in DOA and clear managerial reporting within their respective agencies,” Dunleavy said in his order.

The project was supposed to have started in 2020. The FAQ for employees hasn’t been updated since July 8, 2020.

As of this month, the administration department says it seeks to hire someone to repeat what was to be done under Tshibaka, “develop the plan to improve services and complete IT and procurement consolidation.”

This is from the $4.9 million contract, signed by Tshibaka on Oct. 23, 2019.

This is from the May 6, 2022 request for proposals: “The Department of Administration is soliciting proposals for consulting and project management for statewide information technology and procurement consolidation.”

The RFP claims that this is a “subset” of the excellence project, but parts of it amount to a repeat of what was supposed to be Phase 3 of the Alvarez & Marsal contract, which was to cost $2.3 million.

The state is now seeking a contractor for “implementing a statewide procurement consolidation to be completed by October 2022.”

The budget is estimated at between $460,000 and $925,000. The proposal says the amount can be increased with added projects “similar in scope and services” as described in the RFP.

While the $5 million 2019 contract required that the bidding firm had to have been in business for at least 25 years, one of the unreasonable demands that eliminated potential competition, the new proposal requires 10 years experience in IT and 5 years in procurement, more reasonable minimum standards.

There is much more to say and investigate here, given Tshibaka’s claims about her work for the federal government and state: “I ended up pursuing a public service career, of the people, by the people, for the people. I’m an anti-swamp bureaucracy whisperer.”

A good starting point is the Oct 6, 2020 hearing of the House State Affairs Committee, at which Barry Jackson, a retired procurement official, and others raised issues that were never resolved.

Tshibaka later complained that the requests for information were excessive and she might have to hire a temporary state employee to do the work.

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