Missouri agency accused of illegally steering contracts to well-connected company
A lawsuit alleges World Wide Technology was given unfair advantages over its competitors, violating state procurement law and exposing the state to potential liability if anyone found out (Getty Images)
A longtime state employee is accusing Missouri officials in a new lawsuit of subverting competitive bidding laws in order to steer lucrative technology contracts to a well-connected company, then demoting him when he raised red flags.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month in Cole County against the Missouri Office of Administration, Rodney Rice alleges 'deliberate bias' toward St. Louis-based World Wide Technology in awarding state IT contracts.
CONTACT US
World Wide Technology is one of the largest privately-held companies in the country. It was founded by David Steward, a prolific Missouri political donor who has contributed $2.3 million to mostly Republican campaigns over the last decade.
The company has been paid $53 million by the state over the last two years.
The state gave World Wide Technology numerous unfair advantages over its competitors, Rice alleges in his lawsuit, violating state procurement law and exposing the state to potential liability if anyone found out.
When he brought his concerns to his supervisors, Rice says he was admonished for being an 'obstructionist' and demoted.
Rebecca Morrison, a spokeswoman for World Wide Technology, said in an emailed statement that the company 'is committed to a fair procurement process and upholds the highest ethical standards.'
The Office of Administration did not respond to a request for comment.
After 20 years in state government, Rice says in his lawsuit that he was appointed in March 2023 as director of the Enterprise Project Management Office, which oversees various IT projects and the contractors to whom they are awarded.
Rice believed one of his key responsibilities in the new role was to 'ensure that the various agencies in state government followed the state's procurement regulations and procedures to ensure well-connected vendors did not receive an unfair advantage over their competitors.'
Shortly after taking the job, he says he 'began to suspect a deliberate bias toward (World Wide Technology) in the state's IT contracts.' Specifically, the lawsuit says Rice grew concerned when he realized a former World Wide Technology employee was leading the State Data Center, which awarded numerous projects to the company.
World Wide Technology won 'a majority of the state's 'infrastructure' contracts even in cases where it did not submit the lowest bid,' Rice alleges. 'In fact, (the company) had been awarded one contract even though it had submitted the highest bid, which was millions of dollars more than the bids from other approved vendors.'
Though Missouri has rules permitting the selection of 'clearly inferior bids,' the lawsuit states, 'none of those rules had been followed in the case of (World Wide Technology).'
Rice says his concerns were heightened when he learned the state provided a current employee of World Wide Technology key card access to an office in the Truman State Office Building in Jefferson City, a privilege he says no other vendors are provided.
He later learned the state was using World Wide Technology contractors to work on the preparation of a new project that had not yet been put out to bid, 'which would give (World Wide Technology) an unfair advantage in the bidding process.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
He first raised his concerns in January 2024, the lawsuit says, and was told by a superior that the state's IT infrastructure was 'not sufficiently decentralized and could be irreparably destroyed in the event of a catastrophic failure.'
'To prevent the legislature and the public from learning just how vulnerable the state's computer networks were,' Rice alleges, state leaders decided to bend procurement rules to award World Wide Technology the project 'to ensure that the system was updated as quickly as possible.'
A month later, Rice says World Wide Technology was allowed to change the terms of a project after it had already been sent out to vendors for competitive bids. World Wide Technology would be paid for time and materials regardless of whether it met benchmarks laid out in the project proposal that was previously provided to its competitors.
Concerned that awarding the contract to World Wide Technology based on 'far more favorable terms' would likely violate state law, Rice says he spoke to the Office of Administration's legal department for advice.
He says he was advised by the agency's attorneys to stop the entire bid process and reissue a revised request to ensure that all vendors had a fair chance at winning the bid.
But that was later overruled by his supervisor, who Rice alleges told him to let the bid process proceed unabated without notice to the other vendors.
The next month, Rice says his supervisor informed him his department 'has become too black and white when it comes to contracts and many IT leaders see us as an obstruction and slow them down.' He was given a choice of accepting demotion or being placed on a performance improvement plan, which he understood would have led to his dismissal 'after sufficient time to paper his file.'
Calling the decision a 'Hobson choice,' Rice says he 'accepted' a demotion and a pay cut on April 16, 2024.
Rice's lawsuit alleges he was punished for 'disclosing violations of state procurement law, regulation and policy that exposed the State of Missouri to potential liability in the tens of millions of dollars.'
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
China's grueling ‘996' work culture is being debated by European startups — 7 founders and VCs on why they are resisting
The European startup scene was recently shaken by a LinkedIn debate with some venture capitalists applying pressure on founders to embrace a culture of overwork to compete on a global stage. The "996" work culture reigns supreme in China and has been adopted by various tech giants including Jack Ma's Alibaba and Bytedance's TikTok, but the system has also been the subject of much protest in recent years. Tech workers in Europe told CNBC in 2021 that they're turning down job offers, rejecting interviews, or even quitting their roles, upon learning of TikTok's 996 work culture. Sebastian Becker, general partner at Switzerland-based VC company Redalpine added to the debate on LinkedIn by addressing the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has called for removal of the legal work limit of eight hours per day in Germany in a bid to increase efficiency, while keeping the 40-hour week. Becker said Merz' proposal doesn't go far enough, as "40 hours a week won't cut it." "In Silicon Valley, 60-70 hour weeks aren't the exception — they even have a term for it: 996 — 9am to 9pm, six days a week... we can have the same amount of smart, ambitious people, but if we're consistently being outworked, we won't win," Becker said. Index Ventures Partner Martin Mignot in London explained on LinkedIn that 996 originated in China and has "quietly become the norm" at startups internationally. Part of the reason behind this most recent push is that there's a persistent view that Europe's tech and startup scene is lagging behind the U.S. and China, both of which have produced tech giants and are known for intense work cultures. However, Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital, told CNBC Make It that these views are outdated as Europe has produced deca-corns in recent years— companies worth more than $10 billion including Klarna, Revolut, Wise, and The continent has yet to produce a trillion-dollar tech firm like Nvidia. "The European tech market and ecosystem is keeping up today with the U.S. and Asia... back in the 1980s the European tech scene was behind the tech scene on the West Coast of the US, but that's not the case now," Chandratillake said in an interview. The calls for Europe to adopt the 996 work culture sparked a wave of backlash. CNBC spoke with seven European startup founders and VCs on why they disagree. The obsession with China's 996 or Silicon Valley's 24/7 work culture emerges from a glorification of hustle culture in the startup landscape, founders and VCs said. "It's about a fetishization of overwork rather than smart work…it's a myth," Chandratillake said. "California is very good at telling stories and there's a lot of mythmaking around the concept of what startups look like…. there is hard work involved but if you really spend time in that ecosystem, you will discover that lots of people work really hard, but there are also periods where they don't work." Nina Mohanty, a Silicon Valley native and founder of London-based Bloom Money, said there are actually "lasting effects and unintended consequences" to adopting an aggressive overwork culture, "You only have to think about Revolut and the culture that they have is probably the closest that we've seen in Europe to the 996 culture, and they struggled," Mohanty told CNBC. "Their churn rate was incredibly high within their team, and they even struggled to get their banking license, and their culture was actually cited as one of those reasons." For its part, Revolut told CNBC it operates in a "high-growth, high-performance environment." "In line with this, we've evolved how we support our people: through value-based behaviours, structured development, and a culture that's collaborative, challenging, and built for scale," a spokesperson from Revolut said. Noa Khamallah, general partner at Don't Quit Ventures, pointed out that there's "no need for 996" and that these values are often at odds with both the European mindset and regulation. "Europe's most successful companies — from Spotify to SAP to ASML — didn't achieve dominance through overwork but through sustainable innovation cultures," Khamallah said. He offered the examples of Silicon Valley's Uber and Meta, both companies that expanded into Europe and faced massive regulatory pushback. "These examples reveal how Silicon Valley's 'move fast and break things' ethos often breaks against European values around worker rights, privacy, and sustainable business practices," Khamallah said. An always-on culture decreases retention and creates a revolving door of talent, Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, told CNBC. "Overwork today is a productivity crisis tomorrow," Wernér said. "Personally, I hope my competitors are doing 996. It makes poaching great people a lot easier when they decide they've had enough." Dama Sathianathan, a senior partner at Bethnal Green Ventures said it's unhelpful to "prescribe" working hours, especially if it means putting workers' wellbeing at risk. "Optimizing labor doesn't always lead to better productivity, or help with differentiating from other companies long-term, if you've made work devoid of meaning," Sathianathan explained. Meanwhile, the youngest generation at work are less likely to put up with overworking and tend to prioritize work-life balance. Jas Schembri-Stothart, founder of Luna, a health and wellness app for teen girls, said 996 will drive young talent away from European startups. "People may tolerate overwork for a while, but eventually it leads to churn and even resentment, especially with Gen Z and younger millennials, there's much less tolerance for toxic hustle cultures," Schembri-Stothart said. Founders insist that instead of increasing working hours, startups need more funding and resources to position themselves as key players in the global startup scene. "What Europe really needs isn't more hustle-porn it's more aggressive funding," Wernér said. "With the right level of capital, our startups can hire enough talent to work intensely without breaking themselves. If a team of 10 is burning out to keep up with a 50-person U.S. VC or Chinese government-backed startup, the problem isn't their stamina, it's their cap table." In fact, since 2015 Europe's tech startups have missed out on nearly $375 billion in growth-stage funding, with founders losing out on a potential $300 billion in European investments, according to Atomico's State of European Tech report published in 2024. Additionally, one in two companies raising funding turn to the U.S. for capital rather than Europe. "What European startups really need is access to the right resources — funding, talent, and support — to grow, innovate quickly, and scale effectively," Schembri-Stothart said. "The venture landscape in the U.S. is a different ballgame altogether, and it's tough to compete with that without a stronger ecosystem here. Founders acknowledged that the startup life requires intense hustle and grind, but it's a more nuanced picture than just adopting 996. Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of Fanbytes, an influencer marketing firm that he sold for eight figures in 2022, told CNBC that he's a "huge supporter" of this new 996 push, but admitted that timing is key. "I think there are seasons but I also think that if you are a first-time founder or if your primary goal is basically wealth creation, I'll be very candid, if this is your season, and you're stepping back, then you're not serious about it," he said. Armoo said there are no excuses because AI allows entrepreneurs to be maximally efficient as it can reduce certain time-consuming manual tasks. Meanwhile, Bloom Money's Mohanty, said that when she's not sleeping, she's working. "I think early stage teams tend to almost unknowingly or without actually saying it, work the 996 life, because when you are early stage, you just have to hustle harder with less, and especially if you're the founder, you're always on and always working, and it can be very, very difficult to turn off." Schembri-Stothart draws the line at exploiting her team to produce more work. "It's my choice to work at the weekend, but I'd never expect that on my team, it's definitely not glorified to push your teams to breaking point. Silicon Valley tech exec Dion McKenzie warned that expectations of a 996 culture could make VC funding even more out of reach for early-stage startups. "My fear is that as these new norms and trends become the status quo and benchmarks for getting funded, it excludes so many brilliant founders that value their mental health and/or can't commit to a 996 due to caregiving responsibilities or being a parent," Mckenzie said.
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
San Antonio mayor live election results: Gina Ortiz Jones leads
Gina Ortiz Jones is leading the race to be San Antonio's new mayor, edging out Rolando Pablos in early election results posted Saturday. Why it matters: The mayoral election, the city's first in 16 years without an incumbent on the ballot, has evolved into an unusually partisan race for a nonpartisan seat, drawing money and influence from across the state and nation. Neither Ortiz Jones nor Pablos have held elected office before, and San Antonio has not elected a mayor who hasn't served on the City Council since Phil Hardberger in 2005. The latest: Early vote results as of 7pm Saturday showed Ortiz Jones with 52% of the vote, with 48% for Pablos. State of play: Ortiz Jones served as an Air Force undersecretary in the Biden administration and was twice the Democratic nominee for the 23rd Congressional District. Pablos is a former Texas secretary of state who has served as a senior adviser to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. During the runoff campaign, both leaned on their families' immigrant backgrounds. Ortiz Jones spoke of being raised by a single mother who immigrated from the Philippines and Pablos of his family moving from Mexico to El Paso when he was 8 years old. Follow the money: Pablos and his supporters appeared to both outraise and outspend Ortiz Jones in the runoff election, campaign finance reports show. Pablos raised nearly $333,000 and spent more than $275,000 from late April through May 28. He got a big boost from the Texas Economic Fund, a political action committee run by Abbott's former political director, which raised $1.35 million and spent over $623,000 during that time. Ortiz Jones raised nearly $249,000 and spent over $133,000 in the same period. She had help from Fields of Change, a national Democratic PAC, which spent more than $160,000 for her campaign. The big picture: The new mayor will lead San Antonio at a pivotal time, as officials seek to gain public support for a new downtown Spurs arena that could be surrounded by a sports and entertainment district. They will also lead the city through the remaining years of the Trump administration, under which San Antonio has lost millions of dollars in federal funding. The city is also expecting a budget deficit. Catch up quick: Mayor Ron Nirenberg reached his term limits after eight years in office, making him the city's longest-serving mayor since Henry Cisneros in the 1980s. San Antonio's next mayor will serve for four years after voters approved increasing term length from two years. They will work alongside several new City Council members. Flashback: Nirenberg's departure left a rare opening that drew a crowded 27-candidate field to replace him. Four sitting City Council members struggled to break through the noise as traditional backers in local elections, like the police union, sat out the first round of voting.
Hamilton Spectator
3 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Apparel brand Oak + Fort to restructure amid tariff woes
VANCOUVER - Canadian apparel brand Oak + Fort says it has obtained creditor protection as it works to restructure the business. The Vancouver-based company says the move is necessary because U.S. tariffs have joined other price pressures and led to a decline in consumer confidence and spending. The tariffs arrived after Oak + Fort pushed to open 26 new Canadian and U.S. stores in the last four years, which the company says resulted in a reduced and ultimately insufficient investment in its e-commerce platforms. Court documents show the company owes more than $25 million to creditors including some landlords who didn't receive May rent payments. Oak + Fort says it will continue to operate stores and an e-commerce business during the restructuring. The retailer has hired Reflect Advisors LLC to assist with the restructuring. Oak + Fort was founded in 2010 as an online boutique that eventually expanded to 42 stores in Canada and the U.S. selling womenswear, menswear, accessories, jewelry and home goods. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2025.
