Lawmakers bristled at a claim that towns bear responsibility for compliance with contract bidding laws. The tense moments came Monday during a hearing prompted by a federal investigation into allegations that a former state official coerced municipalities to circumvent those rules.
“The idea that the responsibility of this falls back on the municipalities when you have the state in your face telling you this is what you’re going to do or you’re going to lose funding is a hypocrisy beyond hypocrisy,” Rep. Tammy Nuccio, R-Tolland, said.
Nuccio says she was part of the conversations to build Birch Grove School, which needed emergency funding due to a crumbling foundation. How the contractor for the project was chosen is now the subject of a federal investigation.
“When I have the same person saying here is your team. Here’s who you will work with, or you will lose emergency funding status or you will run over budget and the town is going to have to pay more. When I’m hearing those things, the fox is in the hen house,” Nuccio said.
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Nuccio says she has no confidence that the state will be able to audit this program.
“Steering of contracts, alleged practices that have been in the news are not acceptable and do not meet ethics standards or the governor’s standards,” Acting Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Michelle Gilman said.
Gilman says they are auditing the school construction program going all the way back to 2018.
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“The towns and municipalities and school districts do engage and procure their own goods and services for school construction. The DAS team has a very limited role when it comes to the vendors and services that are provided,” Gilman said.
Gilman says the state has a master list but it’s up to municipalities as to whether they wish to use that list or not.
“If I'm a taxpayer, if I'm someone watching from the outside, the idea that all of a sudden an audit is going to be done of an audit is not exactly filling me with a great deal of confidence,” Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, said.
The first audit of the program is expected to be done by the end of April.
