A senior official in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration has been fired and could face an ethics investigation after he failed to recuse himself from matters related to a large city contract that involved a health insurance company he had accepted a job with.

Bryan Hum, the interim director of Bowser’s Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs, disclosed to his superiors last week that he had accepted a job with Elevance Health. But according to Bowser’s office, he did not recuse himself during the job search from any matters involving Amerigroup, an Elevance subsidiary that competed for and recently won a part of a $1.6 billion contract to run Medicaid for low-income D.C. residents.

Hum’s firing was first reported by Washington City Paper writer and WAMU political analyst Tom Sherwood.

Under D.C.’s ethics laws and regulations, city officials and employees who are seeking non-government jobs have to recuse themselves from any matters that might involve future employers, and file that recusal notice in writing. They are also limited or outright forbidden — when in a new job — from engaging with the D.C. government again on specific matters pertaining to their old responsibilities. Any violations can result in financial sanctions even after the official or employee has left the D.C. government.

In a letter on Monday, Bowser asked the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability and the D.C. Inspector General to investigate Hum’s failure to recuse himself, and any possible violations of laws or regulations.

“While he is not a procurement official engaged in the evaluation or negotiation of contracts, Mr. Hum, in the course of shepherding contracts to and through the [D.C. Council], may be privy to non-public information. Prior to his resignation, Mr. Hum had not tendered any recusal notices,” wrote Bowser in the letter.

Hum did not immediately respond to DCist/WAMU request for comment.

It remains unclear whether the investigation or any of Hum’s conduct could have an impact on the five-year, $8.8 billion Medicaid contract the council approved last week. Ahead of the vote on the lucrative contract, losing bidder CareFirst waged a fierce lobbying campaign to convince lawmakers to reject the contract over concerns with Amerigroup’s past conduct in the city.

In a statement, Elevance said Hum’s hiring and conduct would not impact the Medicaid contract award.

“The award decision on these contracts was made by the Office of Contracting and Procurement in June after a competitive procurement process. Mr. Hum did not work for OCP and did not have any role in the procurement of the managed care contracts. Mr. Hum responded to a public job posting from Amerigroup DC in August, two months after the contracts had been awarded by OCP,” it said.

Asked Tuesday about the situation, Bowser said she did not have concerns with the overall Medicaid contract, largely because the three winners — along with Amerigroup, MedStar and AmeriHealth also won the contract — emerged from an independent procurement process. In a brief conversation with DCist/WAMU, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said much the same.

But Bowser did sound a note of frustration over Hum’s conduct.

“What residents should know is that we won’t tolerate people that don’t follow the ethics rules even upon their exit. And we have rules that govern post-employment,” she said. “It is obvious, and it should be obvious to everyone, that you can’t be working on one matter while at the same time entertaining an employment offer, taking an employment offer, or accepting an employment offer that’s related, especially to a contract that you have worked on.”