BALTIMORE — The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducted an investigation alleging embezzlement within the Department of Public Works Northwest Transfer Station.
According to the investigation, a station cashier embezzled cash payments from disposal fees paid by small haulers to dispose of waste at the station.
During the 2019 Ransomware attack on Baltimore City Government operations, cashiers had to revert back to handwriting tickets. It was found through the investigation that the cashier shredded 16 of those handwritten tickets for May 28 and May 29.
The shredded tickets were collected and reconstructed by the Station Solid Waste Supervisor and copies were supplied to OIG for review.
The total amount for the reconstructed intake tickets was $455.73.
According to OIG, based on the time stamp and dates they were able to identify that one cashier worked during the dates and times and that the cashier intentionally failed to record several cash transactions and disposed of intake tickets she received.
They also found the station had been operating without functioning security cameras, license plate readers and the cashier scale house lacked adequate internal controls.
After referring the matter to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, they were instructed to file theft charges against the cashier.
The OIG was only able to corroborate two of the 16 tickets and as a result on October 1, the OIG filed an application for the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City against the cashier.
The cashier plead guilty to theft less than $100.
DPW subsequently terminated the cashier.
