DPS chief wants probe fifinished

Public Integrity Unit halted border security contract investigation.

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw on Thursday called on Travis County’s Public Integrity Unit to complete an investigation into more than $20 million in border security contracts his agency awarded to Abrams Learning and Information Systems bet ween 2006 and 2010.

He even offered to pay for it.

McCraw sai d the DPS would consult with state leadership to see if the agency could use its own funds to reimburse the Public Integrity Unit for the investigation. He also suggested that the Travis County district attorney’s office seek investigative assistance from the FBI.

Prosecutor Gregg Cox, who heads the section that oversees the unit, told media outlets that the unit halted an investigation into the contracts after then-Gov. Rick Perry vetoed funding for the Public Integrity Unit in 2013.

Perry was later indicted on abuse of power charges relat-

ed to his threat to veto the unit’s funding, which came after Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg refused to step down following a drunken driving conviction.

McCraw’s request comes a day after state Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, urged Cox to reopen the investigation.

In a letter, McCraw said the DPS hadn’t received any requests from the Public Integrity Unit for contract records, but that “we are prepared to provide you with any and all documents relative to this matter including a number of audits, all of which resulted in no substantial findings nor criminal allegations.”

“Because you and others have made this contract a cause celeb (sic), we would request that you finish your job and complete your investiga- tion,” McCraw wrote.

McCraw’s request also comes as the Travis County DA’s leadership of the unit is in doubt.

The Legislature is poised to move the unit’s public corruption investigatory powers from the Travis County district attorney’s office to the DPS’ Texas Ranger Division. The author of the House bill on the shift, state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said the DPS would likely seek a “third party” investigation of any allegations about itself.

A House vote on the bill was delayed Thursday after Democrats raised a series of points of order, sending it back for committee fixes. The bill is expected back for a vote next week.

Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Cox said he hadn’t yet read McCraw’s letter and couldn’t respond to it.

Critics of the contracts, including border area legislators, have questioned why the con- tracts were awarded on an emergency basis over several years, without any competitive bidding.

Abrams Learning and Information Systems, or ALIS, became an authorized state vendor under the Texas Multiple Award Schedule, in which state agencies can contract with preferred firms without soliciting bids.

McCraw said the DPS began its series of emergency contracts with ALIS in 2006 because of “escalating violence in Mexico” and a 2005 request from Laredo’s mayor and the Texas Border Sheriff ’s Coalition to address drug and human smuggling along the border.

But according to contract documents obtained by the American-Statesman, a 2006 contract that greatly expanded ALIS’ duties was the result of an order from Perry.

“Why an Emergency Purchase?” wrote Jack Colley, then the DPS emergency management chief. “The Governor directed expanded state and local border security to begin quickly and before any contracting process could begin. ... I believe we cannot wait the approximately 30 days the normal contracting process will require and the further time an unfamiliar contractor would require to commence operations.”

McCraw said the private defense firm has been “crucial in helping the department adapt military doctrine for the purposes of creating a unified policing model, which the department continues to use today to address threats along the border.”

Earlier this week, the DPS distanced itself from an internal document written by ALIS contractors that described aerial surveillance of Mexico during a 2010 border operation and warned that “we are admitting to spying on Mexico.”