Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Howard Hepburn says he plans to recommend firing three district staff members after an Inspector General's investigation found employees mismanaged the procurement process and misled the School Board during a long-troubled effort to buy student laptops. The findings have also been referred to the State Attorney's Office to determine whether criminal charges are warranted, per the report.
Inspector General Flags Years of Mismanagement
According to CBS News Miami, the Broward Office of the Inspector General concluded that staff “mismanaged the procurement process and misled the School Board” while working to secure a laptop vendor. CBS News Miami reported the probe centered on the purchase of 80,000 student laptops, though earlier Sun Sentinel reporting from June 2025 described the district as trying to buy 50,000 new laptops as part of an effort to give every student a take-home device — the dossier does not clarify whether the two figures refer to different stages of the procurement. Investigators say staff failed to follow proper procurement procedures when selecting both the laptop vendor and a separate company tasked with storing and distributing the devices.
The WLRN account of the Inspector General's final report, released Wednesday, lays out a timeline stretching back more than two years. Between September 2023 and October 2024, the School Board issued three separate solicitations to purchase and distribute computers for students. The first of those attempts was scrapped after staff realized the solicitation did not include Chromebooks as an option, even though HP had come out on top as the first-place bidder.
Steering Allegations Tied to Small Vendor
Investigators also examined whether district staff tried to funnel part of the contract to a politically connected small vendor. The report found that a former Economic Development Diversity Compliance Officer attempted to steer business to iPhone and iPad Warehouse LLC, a company owned by Brian Farrell — an effort the same report describes as ultimately unsuccessful. The Inspector General's office did find no misconduct or gross mismanagement in its overall conclusions, even as it flagged the mismanagement and misleading of the board.
The Inspector General's report goes further on Farrell himself, alleging he later violated state law in connection with a successful bid for a separate $540,625-per-year district contract. Investigators say Farrell submitted a forged document and misrepresented his company's eligibility for that distribution contract, according to the same WLRN report.
A Procurement Process Years in the Making
The laptop saga predates this week's report by years. Sun Sentinel coverage from last June described an effort “mired by two years of delays,” with the district failing twice to lock in a vendor since 2023. By last September, the district had canceled the bidding process twice over concerns vendors themselves had raised, even as officials said the delays were hurting students because many of the district's existing computers were out of date.
At one point, the proposed purchase was wrapped into a recommended $115 million, five-year contract primarily with HP Inc., which the School Board agreed to bring back for consideration at its September 16, 2025 meeting, according to the Sun Sentinel's reporting. An earlier 2024 solicitation had drawn competing bids from Figgers Communications, which offered the lowest price on the cheapest Celeron laptops, as well as Lenovo and HP.
What Happens Next
With the case now in the hands of the State Attorney's Office, it remains unclear whether criminal charges will ultimately be filed.
