An investigation of a whole bunch of whistleblower complaints filed with the state auditor has revealed $280,000 in inappropriate expenditures by California companies in 2022.
“Our investigations discovered wasteful selections, poor contract oversight, unreported go away leading to overpayments, misuse of state assets, and attendance abuse,” State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom Could 18.
One unnamed state company wasted almost $114,000 in public funds after they paid an analyst to remain dwelling and never work in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to the report, revealed Could 18.
“We’re not naming the company that’s the topic of this report as a result of doing so could determine or result in the identification of the people talked about within the report,” in response to the report. The auditor additionally didn’t present particulars about why the worker was on administrative go away.
In one other case, workers on the California Correctional Well being Care Companies didn’t report 600 hours of a nurse’s absences, in response to the report.
The auditor’s workplace additionally discovered a state parks and recreation supervisor used a public boat dock to retailer his private boat for greater than six years, inflicting the company to lose as much as $36,000 in potential income.
The state parks division additionally didn’t report about $67,000 in housing advantages as a part of the supervisor’s taxable revenue that resulted from his residing in state-owned housing. The division instructed the auditor’s workplace it meant to supply coaching and disciplinary motion towards the supervisor to make sure the actions didn’t occur once more, in response to the report.
On the Division of Meals and Agriculture, the auditor’s workplace discovered one of many company’s contractors violated a state conflict-of-interest regulation by returning to the company as a contractor inside 12 months of leaving a district agricultural affiliation. The workplace didn’t identify the contractor’s affiliation as a result of it might determine them, in response to the report.
In one other case, a psychiatric technician on the Division of State Hospitals didn’t account for worker absences for a complete of almost 400 hours from October 2018 to August 2021. The error price the state about $12,500, in response to the report.
The state auditor’s workplace additionally discovered a supervisor on the Division of Industrial Relations used a state car to commute from his dwelling to work. The supervisor, who was accountable for controlling entry to a number of different state autos, repeatedly misused one among them in his each day commute for 3 years, driving about 19,600 miles.
After reporting the discovering, the division issued an bill to the supervisor in December 2022 for $4,200, which was probably the most conservative of three price estimates, the auditor reported. The supervisor was additionally working to put in location monitoring programs in its car fleet to forestall future misuse, in response to the report.
On the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a water and sewage plant supervisor misused state assets, together with a state-owned backflow testing package, for this non-public enterprise and used computer systems to commonly store on-line whereas working. In an investigation, the auditor’s workplace found the worker visited greater than 3,600 net pages unrelated to his duties on 52 workdays.
Greater than half of the pages he visited have been on-line buying websites, together with Craigslist, Wayfair, eBay, and Costco, the auditor reported. The worker apparently commonly visited on-line categorised listings for comedian books and shopped for designer clothes and different merchandise.
Through the one-year interval, the auditor’s workplace performed investigations on 1,269 whistleblower stories. Of these, 855 lacked sufficient info to research.
The state’s Whistleblower Act authorizes the state auditor to research and report on substantial allegations by state companies and staff.
From 1993 to December 2022, the auditor’s workplace has taken 666 actions associated to whistleblower complaints. Twelve of these resulted in convictions, 104 resulted in job terminations, 28 staff have been demoted, 64 had their pay decreased, 372 have been reprimanded, and 38 have been suspended with out pay, in response to the report.
The auditor’s report was despatched to Newsom. His workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Originally posted 2023-05-22 21:54:28.