Get it out yourself, Part II
Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
It looks like the Tribune agrees with my assessment yesterday that the governor’s office was trying to get out in front of a negative story by telling a reporter that it was conducting an internal investigation.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s showcase efficiency initiative aimed at saving the state tens of millions of dollars may become a major embarrassment with the anticipated release of what sources said Wednesday will be a scathing independent audit that raises questions about waste and mismanagement.
Blagojevich’s administration has already announced an internal investigation into suspect spending conducted under a $28.4 million contract awarded to a consortium of politically connected firms to recommend ways to consolidate state property and sell off excess real estate. […]
Blagojevich’s aides have declined to explain what prompted their investigation. However, sources familiar with the audit said the administration’s allegations of wasteful spending by a firm hired to save the state money were lifted from Holland’s work.
Some lawmakers questioned whether the Blagojevich investigation was little more than an attempt to blunt the anticipated embarrassment of the long awaited and more comprehensive state audit of Central Management Services operations.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 9:17 am:
This also gives the Blago folks a good excuse to fire the two Republicans left in the CMS Real Estate Dept, FWIW…
- PrairieStateDem - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 11:20 am:
That story was something else, they released it out because they knew they would get jammed up on it.
Just imagine a series by some reporter about all of the audit results for Rod’s california consultants…
The one i would really like to see is the contractor who is adminstoring the ethics test to state employees.
This is a LA based firm and me thinks there is a connection to Lon Monk or some other money man in the Blago-sphere.
This adminsitration is so corrupt that would certainly be fitting.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 11:21 am:
I assume the inability of anyone to say what, exactly, prompted the investigation means that it’s an ongoing investigation by the ethics office? Which probably means someone somewhere tipped off the ethics office?
(Right. But then how would the gov’s office find out about it?)
Okay, nevermind. Thinking out loud. It’s odd, though.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 11:26 am:
re: ethics test
Even more interesting would be to find out why something like the ethics test was outsourced in the first place? My understanding was that the state was consolidating its print and media and internet services so that all the major developers and PIOs were under a single roof for this *very* reason - so that the brainpower would be consolidated and stuff like this could be whipped out in a jiffy.
The other angle I’d take on the ethics test is the cost. There are several recent software packages that out-of-the-box would do what the ethics test did. And probably for a lot less money.
Isn’t there a state training and certification board?
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 11:28 am:
Somebody in CMS wasn’t doing their job in reviewing the requests for payment from this contractor, or there wasn’t somebody assigned to do the job in the first place. Standard operating procedure, at least when I was involved in state government, was to have someone do a line-by-line review of the submissions from the contractors to ensure that the contractors weren’t attempting to obtain payment for things like “celebratory dinners,” overstated charges, double billing, etc. As I recall, the agency head (Director) is required to approve all payment requests and certify that everything requested for payment is proper under state law.
A failure to do this type of review properly is one of the things that will happen if you attempt to run state government without a sufficient number of employees because you either didn’t replace the folks that were lost due to the early retirement, and/or got rid of the folks who were “from prior administrations,” attempt to consolidate all kinds of things into one agency like CMS, and create a culture of fear among the remaining employees that results in people attempting to stay “below the radar” in order to keep their jobs.
This is also an example of the what happens when you outsource things that should be done by state employees.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 11:46 am:
This is the beginning of a flood of negative news on the blatant corruption in this administration. It took less than 2 years for these “reformers” to begin stealing anything that wasn’t nailed down.
Hey Rich! Maybe you should ask the Governor’s Inspector General why he turns the names of individuals filing ethics complaints against State agency personnel over to the offending agencies themselves for review. It has become apparent to many State employees that the OIG’s office exists to cover up misdeeds by their people.
So much for confidentiality!
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 12:39 pm:
If in fact, what Anonymous 4/21 says is true, they should provide evidence or encourage those individuals contact the media.
Breaching confidentiality is a violation of the ethics law, if I read it correctly.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 1:16 pm:
I would suggest that the person contact either the attorney general or the FBI.
- Tessa - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 4:15 pm:
The whole whisteleblower protection that got passed after Rod became gov gets all mucked up when you add in the ethics test - tell, tell, tell- and the Office of the Inspector General. It’s like they pulled the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” phrase from the military. Here, we’ll do all this “training” with you every year and give you someone to call, but do you REALLY want to do that?
I think I said the other day that it was odd how the head of CMS suddenly decided to leave, stating he “only planned to stay two years”. Something is very stinky in Springfield.
And see how it makes everyone focus on something other than the fact there’s no money in the budget, and no budget for next year. I think we need more consultants!
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 4:20 pm:
The Comptroller’s Office reports that the CMS paid the IPAM group $8,935,871.08 in FY ‘04 and expending $2,825,867.92 so far in FY ‘05 (with $588,544 encumbered). It’s interesting that CDB is listed as expending $1,610,945 to IPAM in FY ‘05 (with $2,977,599.08 encumbered). If encumbered is another way of saying “intended to be paid to the contractor”, hopefully someone can take back the steering wheel on this thing and suspend further payments while there is still money in the accounts.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 8:14 pm:
A little off the point, but for all of you PSA’s who won’t receive raises for the Blago’s entire administration, were you aware that top administrators at some of the most financially troubled agencies like DHS have recieved “special salary adjustments” averaging 10% each of the last two years.
Oh wait this thread was about ethics. I guess it wasn’t off the point. Average employees don’t get raises or salary adjustments just Blago’s carpetbaggers.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 8:54 pm:
Almost all new CMS management employees are now “at will employees” who can be fired for reason (or for no reason at all). Many of the “at will” (or Non-Code) positions are advertised in newspapers or filled from within. These NC position employees have no recourse but to ’shut up’ and let things happen. They are not Civil Service Employees (Coded) who when fired can have any recourse or legal claim in a court of law. CMS has knitted itself into a very tight little cocoon of quiet workers no matter what is happening ethically or unethically. Quickly, on another subject, has anyone really, really looked around the Thompson Center downtown Chicago lately at the absolutely deplorable condition of the building from the worn and cut carpets to the filthy unattended restrooms and dirty windows? There are few to no employees or budget to maintain the building now. It is absolutely embarrassing and the public in general would be outraged to see the waste and lack of attention this administration is paying to publicly owned facilities. The Gov. “facility consolidation executive order” of this administration is reportedly saving the State money but in reality, with no employees or budget to maintain the facilities, what will they be like in just one year?
- ChicagoDog - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 9:35 pm:
How can the previous anonymous blogger be correct about the deteriorating conditions at the Thompson Center. I thought IPAM got $25 million to maintain the State’s Office Buildings?
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 21, 05 @ 9:40 pm:
The Gov doesn’t care what the building looks like. He takes an aux. elevator to his office, which I am sure is very nicely appointed and freshly painted, and rarely sees the public portion of the JRTC.
Hell, the director of DCEO got a brand spanking new corner office built with all the appointments befitting his status. (retch!) Plus, all his numerous minions had new offices built for themselves too. It was fun to watch them fight for the most square footage for THEIR new office.
I digressed. Anyway, Blago will just blame the buildings condition on the budget problem and previous administrations. Seems to be the standard answer.
- Anonymous - Friday, Apr 22, 05 @ 12:17 pm:
oops, iPAM stands for Illinois Property (not Public) Asset Management, as Trib wrote throughout the piece
- Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 12:03 pm:
Blame Lon Monk and Bradley Tusk
Monk should be under investigation always doing politics on state time
Also Bradely Tusk should not have tried to stop the Civil Rights of Jack Franks and his constituents by blocking requests and going through him
- Anonymous - Saturday, Apr 23, 05 @ 6:55 pm:
How do you investigate yourself?