The Town’s former Deputy Supervisor pled guilty today to a felony that involved contractors working on Town construction projects. The presiding Judge required that restitution be made by the former Deputy Supervisor to the Town.
Over the course of the last year the Town has cooperated with the District Attorney’s investigation. The Town has provided tens of thousands of documents to the DA pursuant to their request.
Once the indictment of the former Deputy Supervisor was handed down, the Town’s audit firm conducted a subsequent event audit and did not detect any unusual activity, noting that it is difficult, if not impossible, to detect collusion on paper. This event audit was a second audit, and in addition to the annual audit conducted by the Town’s audit firm.
Based on what was stated in court today, we now know that at least one contractor billed the Town for services at a personal residence of a Town employee. Simply put, such fraudulent conduct by a company contracting with the Town is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The Town will be taking immediate steps in the wake of this development.
Now that the criminal investigation is concluded, we will aggressively pursue any contractor engaged in this fraud and breach of trust against the Town. While fraud can occur in any setting, the Town’s residents should be assured that the Town has procedures in place to minimize risks, including sealed bidding processes, change orders for any modifications to bid pricing, and the assignment of a qualified Construction Manager.
The Town will be taking the following measures:
- Require all construction company contractors currently working on, or seeking to work on significant Town projects, to submit sworn compliance affidavits confirming that they have not engaged in, and will not engage in any illegal activity, regardless of any criminal immunity that may have been provided to the contractors by law enforcement officials.
- Hire an independent forensic auditor to review the Center project and all recent construction projects for contractor irregularities and to recommend any process improvements or revisions necessary to our procurement policies.
- Conduct a robust investigation. As part of this investigation, we are going to press for information regarding the identity of the contractor who committed this fraud. This information needs to be disclosed to the community for the protection of this municipality and the region.