Kansas commerce deputy's lucrative contract may trigger stronger conflict of interest laws

A Kansas lawmaker wants to rewrite the state's conflict of interest laws in response to a state employee bidding on and winning a consulting contract.

"There was an article from The Topeka Capital-Journal picked up by Yahoo national now, a state employee formed a company, put in a bid for a contract for a consulting contract, as a state employee, won the contract and then left the state," said Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker. "Major conflict, major conflict."

Paul Hughes, the former Commerce Department deputy secretary, formed Catapult Kansas LLC while still employed by the state. He then bid on a consulting contract — he was the only bidder — and was awarded the contract for $180,000 a year.

His last day as a state employee was two and a half weeks after the start of the consulting contract. As deputy secretary, Hughes oversaw business development efforts, including megaproject recruitment. His consulting position will focus on megaprojects and attracting corporate headquarters to Kansas.

The Capital-Journal's story was published Sunday, and by Monday, Tyson had asked the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statues to prepare draft bill language to toughen the state's conflict of interest laws in response to the situation.

"Anybody that's using their current position to influence future gains, it is absolutely a conflict of interest," Tyson said. "So the bill will include legislators also."

Because Hughes said he didn't participate in the agency's making of the contract, and because it was competitively bid, there doesn't appear to be a violation of the state's conflict of interest laws.

More: Kansas gave $180K megaproject consulting gig to LLC of top economic development official

"RFP procurement process was handled by the Department of Administration and complied with all procurement policies," Commerce Department spokesperson Pat Lowry said earlier. "It was competitively bid, open to the public, followed all established policies, and the vendor met all criteria, therefore there was no concern of a conflict of interest."

Tyson said she wants the Joint Committee on Information Technology to discuss taking up the issue as a committee bill at its next meeting on Aug. 23. The state's IT systems have previously seen similar contracting situations, she said.

"This committee has discussed before individuals that leave the state, they'll sign a contract with IT and then profit off of it," Tyson said. "We did address that in a minor manner, but it seems like we haven't addressed it in such a large manner, that we need to address it for all state employees and all legislators."

"It was never proven — but the appearance was there — that individuals would sign contracts with vendors and then leave the state and start working for the vendor," she later said.

Tyson said she wants to model an amended state law off federal rules "so that this type of situation doesn't happen again, so that you don't use your influence of your position and then turn around and benefit from it."

It isn't immediately clear whether state-level rules similar to the existing federal code on conflicts of interest and public service employees transitioning to private sector work would have applied to Hughes' consulting contract. Government watchdog groups have criticized federal "revolving door" and "cooling off" rules as too weak.

Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas commerce deputy's lucrative contract may bring changes in law