Sens. Somers, Fazio, Harding Statement on DEEP Contracting Procurement Problems

For Immediate Release

Sen. Heather Somers, Sen. Ryan Fazio and Sen. Stephen Harding today issued the following statement regarding a forthcoming audit by the State Contracting Standards Board (SCSB) which will note how contracting procurement problems identified by the State Auditors in 2021 and 2022 have persisted at Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

“Unacceptable.

The state auditors’ previous findings clearly showed a need for DEEP to better manage taxpayer dollars on a variety of fronts.

This new audit will reveal that DEEP is still not complying with SCSB.

This is further evidence that DEEP, in its current form, is too big and unwieldy to manage.

There must be more accountability. That’s painfully obvious.

And it is also another excellent reason to separate PURA from DEEP.”