Spurned Contractor Sues VIHFA, Alleging Favoritism, Conflicts of Interest and ‘Grossly Inflated’ Awards

An Ohio-based environmental engineering and consulting firm sued the V.I. Housing Finance Authority and two of its top officials last week, alleging a pattern of awarding federally funded contracts to a competitor at “grossly inflated” prices, despite an apparent conflict of interest.

Gandee and Associates claimed in a civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands that the firm responded to a request for qualifications to perform environmental review, assessments and testing services in March 2024. According to a bid tabulation Gandee attached to their complaint, the firm was one of two to respond to the RFQ. The second respondent was the St. Thomas-based Encom Company. Gandee claims the firm was not awarded any of the contracts because it did not yet have a U.S. Virgin Islands professional engineer license for one of its principals or an engineering firm license from the Licensing and Consumer Affairs Department, both of which the firm had applied for. Gandee received a non-award letter in June 2024.

“Remarkably, public procurement records reveal that VIHFA subsequently awarded at least five contracts under RFQ-003 to Tysam Tech,” according to the complaint. “This occurred despite the glaring fact, confirmed by VIHFA’s own published Bid Tabulation, that Tysam Tech did not even submit a qualifications package for RFQ-003 by the mandated deadline.”

Gandee further claimed that VIHFA’s “preferential treatment of Tysam Tech appears even more suspect” because the agency’s former senior environmental manager, Kyora Veira, began working for the rival firm three days after leaving her post at VIHFA. A screenshot of a social media profile attached to the complaint appears to show Veira’s last day at VIHFA was May 17, 2024, and her first day at Tysam Tech was listed as May 20, 2024.