Oklahoma OMES director grilled over restaurant deal

(The Center Square) – An investigative committee raked the Office of Management and Enterprise Services executive director over the coals Monday about a state contract with a restaurant vendor accused of spending millions of state dollars.

Steven Harpe, who also serves as the state’s chief executive officer, said his office was not involved in the contract the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department signed with Swadley’s Bar-B-Q in 2020 but was made aware of it in March 2021.

“We were aware of an amendment that was coming through that was also cited with statutory language that said they were operating outside of OMES,’ Harpe told the Oklahoma House Special Investigative Committee.

Harpe could not cite what the statue was and told Chairman Ryan Martinez he would get back to him with a specific answer.

“I’ve read that statute multiple times and it seems like it’s very specific in the situations that tourism is exempt and it’s not just a broad exemption,” Martinez said. “It worries me that – is an agency able just to list a statute and nobody looks at twice and says, ‘Ok they must know what they are doing?”’

Harpe responded, saying, “OMES isn’t authorized to interpret another agency’s statutes. Lawyers interpret statutes and the statutes that have been given tourism they’re accountable to interpret their own statutes.”

Martinez said that between 55% to 60% of invoices were paid out to Swadley’s after OMES was made aware of the contract when asked about an amendment.

“I’m curious if you’ve seen this amendment, and I’ve seen what some amendments look like, there have got to be red flags or horns or sirens going off because I know there were when I read them,” Martinez said. “And then we continued to pay out a massive of invoices.”

Harpe didn’t recall when he reported issues within the OTRD.

“I’ll have to go back and look at my notes,” Harpe said. “I don’t know. It’s been a little while.”

Harpe also said he wasn’t aware of when he told Gov. Kevin Stitt about the OTRD contract and he’s had “light conversations” with Stitt since the allegations involving OTRD and Swadley’s were made.

“Things like multiple investigations going on, we talked about OSBI’s (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) involvement and just basically we were going to stand down and back out of the way until we were called in,” Harpe said.

OSBI is conducting a criminal investigation into the deal between OTRD and Swadley’s. A report from the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency found several incidents of excessive spending, including 164,903 miles in travel expenses for one month. The restaurant chain spent $11,000 for a cheese melter, but LOFT found the same manufacturer sold one for $5,500.

The committee’s job is not to find criminal wrongdoing, but Martinez said at the end of the meeting he was concerned about accountability.

“I think that there’s a lack of knowledge on contracting, on things that are happening and there’s just no accountability and that’s clearly what has happened with the department of tourism,” Martinez said. “I think that herein lies the problem that we’re relying on systems but no human to look over a budget that’s way over or a questionable invoice or contract.”

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