A state employee has filed suit against the Tennessee Department of Human Resources after being refused a copy of a tax-payer funded report prepared by McKinsey & Co, a global consulting firm hired to help guide the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thomas Wesley — described by his attorney as a state employee acting in his capacity as a Tennessee citizen entitled to access government documents under the state’s public records law — is asking a Davidson County Chancery Court judge to order state officials to appear in court to justify withholding the report, and to order its public release.
The report Wesley is seeking was commissioned by the state in April 2020 just as the pandemic was beginning. McKinsey is a Washington, DC-based international consulting firm that has been hired by the state to provide advice on a variety of public policy issues for more than a decade. The company has earned $43 million from its work with Tennessee government since 2013, according to a state contractor database that does not provide access to earlier payment information.
The state’s COVID contract with McKinsey outlines a series of “deliverables” in its work advising Gov. Bill Lee and state officials on pandemic response.
Among them, a “government efficiency assessment and review to identify potential performance improvements and assist the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic;” “data and best practices to inform the choices that the state will need to make as it...
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