Former No. 2 at Safety Dept. approved purchases from troopers
The troopers, Vincent Turocy and Joseph L. Agee III, were suspended Wednesday after an internal investigation found that their company, State Trooper Store, sold the state $5,322 worth of promotional items over the course of a year.
Tennessee law forbids state employees from selling goods to the state.
Former Commissioner Fred Phillips promoted Moore to the No. 2 post at the department in January 2003.
Phillips resigned and Moore retired Dec. 9, the same week that Highway Patrol Commander Col. Lynn Pitts was forced to resign and an investigation revealed that dozens of troopers and staffers had criminal or driving violation histories.
Gov. Phil Bredesen has said the department is plagued by cronyism and has vowed to clean it up.
Safety Department spokeswoman Melissa McDonald confirmed that Moore’s signature appears on three separate orders for the 75th anniversary commemorative Tennessee Highway Patrol coins. The 150 coins cost $1,072.50.
The Department of Safety released invoices and purchase requests for nine of the 12 orders Thursday. But the three orders approved by Moore did not include the request forms that describe the purpose and detail the approval process.
“The ones signed off by former Deputy Commissioner Tom Moore are missing that sheet of paper,” McDonald said. “It was not in the file.”
Asked for a reason for the missing paperwork, McDonald said: “That’s something the former deputy commissioner will have to answer.”
Moore could not be reached for comment.
Also Thursday, a state spokeswoman said that the trooper-owned company became an official state vendor at the request of the Department of Safety.
Department of General Services spokeswoman Lola Potter said the company was added to the state vendor database in July 2004 after the department received a fax from the fiscal services division at the Department of Safety.
“The Department of Safety asked us to add them to the vendor database,” Potter said.
General Services was still investigating who at the Safety Department had approved the application, Potter said.
Bill Hedge, the department’s fiscal director was not available for comment, McDonald said. Hedge approved the nine State Trooper Store orders that did not go through Moore’s office.
The largest of the 12 orders — for 3,000 Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy patches worth $1,890 — was the only one competitively bid.
Both the application form and the first page of the General Services’ purchasing manual note that it’s illegal for state employees to sell equipment or material to the state.
That law has been on the books since 1953, Potter said. General Services officials could think of no other example of state employees trying to sell goods to the state, but Potter acknowledged there has also been no easy way to check.
Agee told WTVF-TV of Nashville on Thursday, “I wouldn’t have gotten involved in selling to the state if I knew it was wrong.”
General Services staff did not notice that the State Trooper Store was run by a state employee even though Turocy used his Social Security number as the tax identification number for the company.
Potter said General Services has traditionally deferred to the agencies requesting certification for new vendors, assuming they have done background checks, determined the company holds all necessary licenses and that owners meet conflict of interest standards. That practice was suspended Tuesday, she said.
“Now when somebody says, ‘You can add this vendor to a database,’ we’re being a little more careful, rather than just assuming that it’s been researched already,” she said.
The State Trooper Store vendor application included requests to be notified about state bids on handcuffs and leg irons, emblems and shoulder patches for uniforms, various clothing items, rifle and range scopes, night vision systems and traffic batons.
The merchandise the state ultimately purchased from State Trooper Store included promotional items such as golf towels, stickers, shirts, and money clips, according to documents released by the Department of Safety.
Each of the orders was hand delivered by State Trooper Store, according to the invoices.
State Trooper Store’s last sale to the state was in September. Agee had left the company by the time Turocy asked to have the company removed from the state vendor list on Dec. 7 — a day after Col. Pitts was forced to step down for allegedly trying to purchase a boat seized by troopers and put up for sale as surplus state property, another apparent violation of state law.
The troopers’ suspensions came a week after the Department of Safety announced it was recommending the termination of four THP officers for a variety of offenses.
The company’s Web site had previously identified both as full-time state troopers.
“We are a small Business that mainly caters to the local State Troopers in Tennessee,” according to a message on the company Web site. “We enjoy providing merchandise for Troopers at low cost so they can represent there department logo in a positive manner.”