OIG Releases 2nd Quarter 2015 Report
The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has transmitted its second quarter report for 2015 to the City Council and City officials. The report summarizes the Office’s activity from April 1 through June 30, 2015.
OIG’s work continues to identify savings and assist the City in the important effort to cut unnecessary waste and loss of revenue. For example, an OIG investigation led to the recovery of $140,685 of overpayments the City made to an elevator maintenance company, dating as far back as 2002. In addition, an OIG audit of the loading zone application and installation process found that the City’s existing loading zone application process has significant inefficiencies due to the multi-layered approval process involved and the need for CDOT to bill and collect sign fees from individual businesses. The audit also found that the City failed to collect $3.9 million of renewal fees billed in 2013.
Also included in this Quarter’s Report:
- A Supervising Police Communications Operator (PCO) used his/her City position to access and disseminate information from the Illinois State Police Law Enforcement Agencies Data System (LEADS) as part of a criminal scheme to threaten a Cook County Corrections Officer and smuggle contraband into the Cook County Jail.
- A Sanitation Laborer violated the City’s Personnel Rules by committing an aggravated battery on a City resident and otherwise treating that resident discourteously during a 2012 altercation.
- Two Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS) employees filed false crash and damages reports after an on-duty traffic collision. Both reports wrongly identified the passenger of the car as the driver when in fact the actual driver’s license was suspended. In addition, the passenger, rather than the driver, submitted to drug testing required for drivers involved in on-duty accidents.
- As Vice-President of a transportation consulting services firm, a former high-ranking Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) employee assisted the transportation consulting firm in its hiring of a consultant who provided services to CDOT under a master consulting agreement for which the former CDOT employee exercised contract management authority.
The full Quarterly Report can be found online at the OIG website: bit.ly/OIG2015Q2