Several school systems in Connecticut were told they had to use certain contractors or they could possibly lose millions of dollars in state reimbursements.
It's part of an FBI probe of Connecticut's bidding process when it comes to school construction. State officials are looking into it, as well.
NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Michelle Gilman, acting commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, which oversees school construction.
Mike Hydeck: "At issue, among many others, Tolland, Hartford, New Britain schools all have said that the former head of school construction Kosta Diamantis said 'use a list, use one of the contractors on the shortlist or you may not get tens of millions in state money in reimbursements.' As far as you know, is that true?"
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Michelle Gilman: "So first of all, the governor takes very seriously these allegations that school systems and others have raised forward to the administration and to others. So we are continuing and have begun the work since raised around October or so to review those allegations. The governor has taken immediate and swift steps to address those issues. In fact, he removed the school construction director as soon as those allegations were made aware to him. And then we are also undertaking many audits, including an internal audit here at my agency, as well as an external audit, hiring an external audit vendor, who will actually review those records, as we do internally as well. So again, taking those allegations very seriously to uncover any misconduct and any issues moving forward."
Mike Hydeck: "And since then, the budget director resigned and moved on to another job, Diamantis was fired. So things are changing over in there, but there's a lot to weed through. So in the beginning, when he was made both deputy at OPM and still a head of school construction, that was billed to save money. He was the second in command where they're writing the checks. This seems like a concentration of power as well, not just saving money. Was that a mistake looking back?"
Michelle Gilman: "So I wasn't at DAS at the time, but there were certainly concerns raised by the legislature and then the governor and the OPM secretary. The DAS commissioner discussed potential efficiencies by which the school construction program may be best situated at OPM, in particular, because OPM administers municipal grants. For other programs, we've now again taken steps to move that program back into DAS where we have experts in construction services that work with towns and cities, municipalities in a wide range of projects. So we believe that moving forward, it's best situated here with my agency. And then we've also taken steps to move the auditing function of the program into a separate part of our agency where previously those auditing functions were part of the full program. So we've taken many steps to separate out the different layers of both the financing of the programs vs. the actual technical support that we provide to towns and to school systems for school construction activity."
Politics
Mike Hydeck: "So the state, as you mentioned, has an independent investigation in addition to the FBI. Who's doing that state investigation?"
Michelle Gilman: "So our agency staff, along with the auditors of public accounts, which is actually under the legislature's authority, are reviewing records going back as far as 2018, so many years back, and we'll continue those activities until we find all information relevant to any of this alleged misconduct. And we'll continue digging for as long as possible, and as long as needed to get those answers not only for the governor and for our agencies, but also because the taxpayers deserve those answers, as does our legislature. So not only are we doing that internal review with internal auditors and our own internal staff, but we are really on the brink of hiring an external auditing firm that should actually be on board this week, to begin doing that work."
Mike Hydeck: "So will you announce who that firm is in the coming week?"
Michelle Gilman: "That's our expectation, yes."
Mike Hydeck: "Okay. So now Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly says he's concerned that this internal investigation, whether it's the one from the outside firm who's doing the audit or inside, is going to be rushed? What's your response to them?"
Michelle Gilman: "So I understand Senator Kelly's concerns and we've worked to address those in responses to him. Overall, you know, this initial audit is just one phase of that audit. As I mentioned before, we will continue to conduct internal and external audits as long as it takes to do the work needed to create transparency around what happened. And then obviously, again, taking steps moving forward, as we've already done around this program to create as much transparency and to provide answers, not only to our lawmakers who deserve those answers, but also to our taxpayers, and to our schools and towns, who are also concerned and looking at this program. Obviously, we are in a rebuilding phase in terms of restoring confidence and transparency around the school construction program, and also looking at all of our processes and procedures when it comes to procurement and other activities not only around this program, but across all state government that includes ethics training for our staff, on all levels, and then doing again, revamped and looking at all of our processes and procedures around procurement."