Posted by Hal Dardick at 7:05 p.m.
A contractor sold medical test kits paid for with city money, and city workers failed to disclose a free trip and rigged hiring, according to a report by Chicago’s new internal watchdog released at a time when aldermen are balking at being placed under his oversight.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s quarterly report is more detailed than its predecessors, in keeping with Mayor Richard Daley’s request for more transparency in the office. (You can read the report by clicking here.)
“The enclosed report is the (Office of Inspector General’s) foray into a more detailed reporting regimen,” Ferguson wrote in a cover letter. The goal is to give city employees a fuller understanding of appropriate conduct, he said.
The 14-page report includes specifics of alleged wrongdoing by city employees, except for their names. Previous reports were comprised mostly of statistics.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, the office received 431 complaints, opened 80 new investigations and referred 43 to other agencies. Meanwhile, the office resolved dozens of other pending cases dating back to 2005.
In one case, it was determined that a not-for-profit agency was submitting false documents to the Public Health Department to get funding and selling HIV test kits that the department gave to it at no cost. The agency was barred from doing business with the city, and an employee involved was suspended for three days.
In another, a city Workforce Development Office employee accepted $2,200 for an international trip and failed to disclose it as required on a statement of financial interest. The employee later resigned.
At the Water Management Department, two supervisors were involved in “a broad and sustained effort to” hire people in exchange for political favors in violation of a federal court order, according to the report. One employee resigned, and the other retired, after Ferguson’s office recommended both be fired.
In other cases, employees fraudulently altered audits, improperly accepted meals and gifts from prospective vendors and changed computerized employee time records.
Daley has suggested that aldermen be subject to investigation by Ferguson’s office, but they’ve balked at that request, saying the power could be used for political witch hunts. Some aldermen crafted a plan to hire their own inspector general, but postponed a vote earlier this week after it was criticized as weak. Among other things, the council watchdog would have had to ask permission before launching investigations.