BALTIMORE — Baltimore City's Inspector General is out with another report this time focusing on the Safe Streets program.
The report reveals how the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) provided fictitious names of workers to secure approval of contracts for organizations partnering with Safe Streets.
In order for these organizations to get paid, there is a process.
First, the Department of Audits is supposed to review each contract or grant insuring compliance with city policies.
Once auditors sign off, the contract or grant goes before the City's Board of Estimates for final approval.
Yet this still doesn't mean contractors get paid, it merely means they've been approved to work for the City and that funds are available for a particular project.
In Baltimore City contractors receive no money up front, meaning they've often already completed their work before ever being paid.
As was the case in Fiscal Year 2022.
MONSE was attempting to lineup contractors to implement Safe Streets crime reduction strategies.
Some contractors at the time weren't fully staffed.
As result the Department of Audits would halt the process because unfilled positions essentially meant there was no one to allocate the money to.
In order to get around this process, MONSE created a loophole, albeit under false pretenses.
According to the Inspector General's report, "MONSE employees sent multiple emails to contractors that appeared to encourage the use of fake employee names for contracts submitted and later approved by the Board of Estimates."
“Off the record, neither MONSE nor the audits team will verify the individual, so we really just need a name that doesn’t sound fictional," one MONSE worker was quoted telling a contractor. "If we remove the position, we will need to revamp the budget and time is of the essence."
In this scenario the contractor submitted a fake name, leading to a $37,850 reward.
A second MONSE employee allegedly told another contractor “enter names in the vacant positions. They can be made up, they just cannot be position titles alone or empty.”
In another similar instance, a contractor was awarded $46,666.66 after giving made up names of workers.
Overall the Inspector General's Office identified 26 potentially fictitious names of employees submitted to the Board of Estimates.
"Utilizing various investigative methods to verify the existence of these listed employees, the OIG did not find any relevant results for nine (9) employees. Those nine employees were budgeted for $285,000 over various contracts," investigators wrote.
The report highlighted some names that couldn't be verified, several which closely resemble Baltimore Ravens players.
Despite the false public records entries, the Inspector General's Office said they found no evidence of MONSE funds going towards the fake employees.
Investigators suggest all positions were eventually staffed, indicating the fake names were a mechanism to secure proper funding.
The Inspector General's Office also noted the Audits Department appears to no longer require positions being filled before heading over to the Board of Estimates.
MONSE Director Stefanie Mavronis responded to the report's findings in a letter.
"MONSE reviewed all invoices and contracting documentation associated with the grants referenced in the report. The agency also found no evidence that funds were paid to any of the fictitious names identified in the OIG report; however, we are committed to completing a thorough review of payroll and timesheet records to ensure that grant funds used to paid for salaries and personnel were appropriately used. Should the agency find evidence of financial mismanagement, we are prepared to work with the Law Department to recover these funds.
"Employees names may be unavailable at the time of BOE submission due to positions being unfilled at the time of contract execution. Recently, the Comptroller’s Office changed their requirement to supply employee names prior to grant approval. The new policy allows MONSE and other city agencies to indicate “Vacant” or “Employee TBD” where there is an unfilled budgeted position. Agencies must collect information on filled positions from the contracted entity after contract execution."
To read the full report, click here.
