Governor Kevin Stitt announced Tuesday that the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) is suing Kleo Inc. for breach of contract concerning federal pandemic assistance funds being misused. The program involved giving parents money to purchase education related supplies during the pandemic. However, it was found that controls were not put into place and improper purchases were made.
OMES is now suing the vendor for not putting those protocols into place.
“The pandemic was a difficult and unprecedented time for all Oklahoma families, and it was our goal to do all we could to swiftly ease some of the burdens lower income families faced as they struggled to keep their kids in school or otherwise to do school from home,” said Stitt. “A vendor, which said it would eliminate the possibility of fraudulent use of grant funds, didn’t uphold its end of the contract and taxpayer dollars were misused. We have to hold this vendor responsible and protect Oklahoma taxpayers from being left holding the bill.”
The U.S. Department of Education could seek to have those funds clawed back if the money was found to be misspent.
The lawsuit was filed in Oklahoma County District Court.
