Criminal
charges may arise from SCC mess
Friday, January 27, 2006 • BY
DUNSTAN McNICHOL • Star-Ledger
Staff
The inspector general, whose analysis
prompted sweeping reforms at the state Schools Construction
Corp., told lawmakers yesterday it is possible criminal
charges will be pursued against individuals or firms
responsible for millions of dollars in questionable
spending.
"We are currently in the process of
looking at some things that may or may not result in matters
that we think the criminal prosecution agencies in this
state would want to take a look at," Inspector General Mary
Jane Cooper told lawmakers during a half-hour appearance at
the Assembly Education Committee. "I have had discussions
with criminal prosecution agencies in New
Jersey."
Cooper has been reviewing the $8.6
billion initiative to rebuild public schools for almost a
year, following a report in The Star-Ledger that detailed
massive cost over-runs, change orders and professional fees
that added hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of
the state school projects.
The Construction Corp. has been barred
from issuing new contracts since last March, when Cooper
said lax oversight and management flaws undermined the
program.
Earlier this month, in her third report
on the corporation, Cooper said an ongoing overhaul in
personnel and practices had shored up the agency
sufficiently to allow for the freeze to be
lifted.
But in that same report she detailed
several examples of waste and mismanagement that raised new
questions about the agency.
For instance, Cooper noted one episode in
which SCC staffers had apparently created misleading
documents to boost payments to a private company by up to
$3.4 million. She highlighted another instance in which
millions of dollars had been wasted on rushed orders for
temporary classroom trailers that ended up sitting, unused,
in a field for a year.
The SCC, which was authorized to spend up
to $6 billion on a court-ordered overhaul of hundreds of
decrepit public school buildings in 31 poor communities and
$2.6 billion subsidizing construction elsewhere, has spent
all that money with hundreds of schools left to be
built.
Lawmakers are reviewing reforms at the
agency as they consider whether to authorize billions in new
spending for the program.
Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington),
a harsh critic of the school building program's failures,
was dismayed that Cooper could not estimate the total amount
lost to waste and mismanagement in its first three
years.
"If you can't have the teeth to get in
and really hone in on these issues, how do we really feel
comfortable how we're going to move forward on this?" he
asked. "There have to be people who signed off on stuff that
you know were not legitimate."
Cooper, who was asked by three lawmakers
whether she had referred any issues to criminal prosecutors,
said only that she meets "informally" with representatives
of the Attorney General's Office to review pending
matters.
"It's not a formal process," she said. "I
actually meet with them about once a month to tell them what
we're doing."
Dunstan McNichol covers state government issues. He may
be reached at dmcnichol@starledger.com or (609) 989-0341.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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