It’s time to hit the brakes on a $160 million contract that Montgomery County Public Schools has with an electric bus vendor. That’s the way Montgomery County Taxpayer’s League President Esther Wells sees it.
Wells was alarmed by information provided by MCPS officials on Monday where they revealed that they’re in the middle of negotiations with an electric school bus vendor whose failures to deliver buses on time led to added millions in expenditures by the school system.
Regarding the school system’s contract talks with Highland Electric Fleets, Wells said, “Why are we renegotiating with them? We should take a pause or we should stop negotiations until we’re able to resolve the current contract.”
Wells was referring to some of the statements that Chief of District Operations for MCPS Dana Edwards shared regarding how the school system had “invoiced” Highland Electric for $1.5 million over the delays in delivery of buses and operational issues.
At that meeting, Edwards said officials believe that the $1.5 million will be recovered, but that she couldn’t get into too many details because of the ongoing negotiations with the vendor. She also said school officials would like to discuss the contract with Montgomery County Inspector General Megan Limarzi once it’s finalized.
Wells believes the Board of Education should hold a meeting like the one held Monday by the Montgomery County Council’s Audit Committee where school officials addressed the issues brought up in the Inspector General’s report on the electric bus contract. A meeting involving the school board, said Wells, would allow citizens “to provide feedback” directly to the board and let school officials know how taxpayer dollars should be used.
Wells went even further, saying that the school system should have its own independent inspector general “where all they do is investigate issues and concerns like this and report independently-sourced information to the board members so that they have all the information they need when they are approving contracts.”
The county office of the Inspector General is an independent office that is responsible for investigating reports of waste, fraud and abuse. As part of its mission, the office conducts audits of county government contracting and controls. The IG’s office has an office dedicated to education oversight.
WTOP has contacted the MCPS Superintendent’s office for comment on the status of the electric school bus contract.
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