Two former Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles officials, who went on to work for a BMV vendor, have been fired.
Chief Operating Officer Shawn Walters and Director of Special Operations Robert Wood were fired last week. The two had been suspended without pay after Gov. Mike Pence called for an investigation.
The two men, Shawn Walters and Pete Wood, left the BMV to work for Express MVA, an Indianapolis-based company that is one of five private vendors that processes titles and registrations for auto dealers for a convenience fee passed on to the consumer.
Walters, who was the COO of Express MVA, approved a state contract with the company for processing titles and registrations when he was working for the BMV.
Last month, Pence called for a state ethics investigation into Walters. The state’s contract with Express MVA is set to expire in mid-October. Pence has ordered it to not be renewed.
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Express MVA denounced the state’s decision not to renew its BMV contract and the Governor’s call for an ethics investigation. In an email to RTV6 at the time, the company said Walters disclosed his employment at Express MVA. A letter provided on BMV letterhead from August 2014 details parameters under which the state agency would deal with Walters regarding his new job.
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In a statement, Express MVA told RTV6:
“We have terminated the employment of Shawn Walters and Pete Wood. We feel that it was in the best interest of the employee's and Express MVA to not continue the relationship. We are still working with the BMV to save the other 38 employees from losing their job and avoid any disruption to the auto dealer community. We are hopeful that this can be accomplished and Hoosiers can continue to enjoy short wait times at their local BMV branch that Express MVA and other partners were instrumental in creating.”
