It’s the latest bit of turmoil for the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, following employee complaints about its former director.
by ALEX KOMAD.C.’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection is now under investigation by the city’s independent financial watchdog for its handling of a contract with former City Administrator Robert Bobb’s consulting company, in the latest bit of turmoil for an agency that just saw its interim director replaced amid broad dissatisfaction among employees. The District’s Office of the Inspector General launched a review of the agency’s management of the contract on July 20, per a letter recently forwarded to Loose Lips, in order to “determine whether DLCP adhered to applicable federal and District contracting, acquisition, and procurement laws and policies in the solicitation, award, and administration” of the deal. The agency is one of two agencies born out of the recent split of the much-maligned Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and generally handles business and occupational licensing in the city.
A former agency employee also tells LL that the OIG’s investigators have spent the past few weeks interviewing DLCP workers about the contract with Bobb’s firm, the Robert Bobb Group.
A spokesperson for OIG, which investigates waste, fraud, and mismanagement within the D.C. government, declined to comment on the matter. A DLCP spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Bobb, who also won a termas chair of the city’s school board in 2006, says he wasn’t aware of any OIG review until he was informed by LL, adding that he has “not been contacted by the agency.”
