Firm Alleges VIHFA Faked a Bid and Fabricated Records in Multi-Contract Procurement Dispute
An environmental engineering and consulting firm is suing the V.I. Housing Finance Authority and two of its senior executives, alleging a pattern of discriminatory treatment in the awarding of vendor contracts. The suit comes after seven projects were reportedly rescinded from the firm.
2025-06-16 12:16:44 - VI News Staff
Ohio-based company Gandee & Associates Inc. (G&A) calls itself a “highly qualified and compliant bidder” in its civil complaint, filed on June 12. Nevertheless, it was “repeatedly targeted with unconstitutional deprivations of its clearly defined property interests in fairly competing for and performing public contracts,” according to the lawsuit.
VIFHA, G&A says, has abused its public contracting and procurement authority, “necessitating judicial intervention to rectify these constitutional wrongs.”
The 64-page complaint, accompanied by a raft of exhibits, details several instances of irregularities in the procurement process which G&A says shows clear evidence of VIHFA's discriminatory posture. For example, G&A says it applied to a March 2024 solicitation from VIHFA for environmental review, assessment, and testing services. The deadline for submissions on RFQ-003-2024-STT-STX was April 5, 2024. The firm says it indicated in its qualifications package that applications for two key licenses were already pending, and would almost certainly be received before any work under the contract began. After the deadline, VIHFA reportedly published a bid tabulation document that showed G&A as one of two contenders.
Subsequently, G&A learned that they would not be awarded any contracts under the RFQ. The stated reason from VIHA was that they did not have the requisite licenses.
The other company listed on VIHFA's bid tabulation document was awarded at least three contracts under the RFQ. However, a third company – one which G&A believes had not responded by the deadline and thus did not show up on the bid tabulation document – has been awarded at least five contracts to do the work.