LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen, while pressing the Nebraska Department of Economic Development in 2024 to tighten its belt, steered the state agency to award a $2.5 million no-bid emergency contract to a bioeconomy consultant and lobbyist he knew and had traveled with as part of state delegations.

State Auditor Mike Foley alleges the Economic Development Department, in carrying out that Pillen-picked contract, broke state law by not specifying in writing what emergency justified skipping the required step of bidding out contracts worth more than $50,000, a step meant to save taxpayers money.

In a Jan. 6 audit letter Foley shared with the Governor’s Office, which was obtained by the Examiner and authenticated by the auditor, Foley dinged the department for leaving blank a required section for explaining the emergency on the state’s “Procurement Exception/Deviation” form.

That’s where department personnel must explain the circumstances justifying seeking no bids. Foley criticized the agency for leaving the second page of the May 2024 form blank, writing that it “contained questions regarding the reasons for designating the contract as an emergency.”

Foley’s letter alleges that omitting this information meant the contract did not comply with “the legal requirement to specify the nature of the supposed exigency” under the Nebraska State Procurement Act in Nebraska Revised Statutes 73-815.

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