Montgomery County officials failed to monitor potential conflicts of interest arising when the county paid $638,884 to companies owned by or employing 11 public safety employees through its troubled tuition assistance program, according to a preliminary report by the Office of the Inspector General.
The confidential report, obtained by The Examiner, also suggests that several county police officers may have lied on application forms seeking approval to have second jobs.
County Executive Ike Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, cautioned that the report was not ready to be made public and that it contained factual inaccuracies, though he declined to specify what the errors were.
The IG’s report found the county’s Ethics Commission and the Office of Human Resources had no “internal controls in place for management to ensure compliance” with county rules that governed secondary employment. It called for “stronger oversight.”
The Ethics Commission is tasked with approving outside employment for county employees, and the Human Resources Office manages the tuition assistance program, which was suspended in September over concerns that taxpayer money was being misspent.
Officials from the County Attorney’s Office have said they are examining whether county policy prohibiting employees from owning or working for a company that contracts with the county department they work for was broken.
The Examiner first reported that almost $550,000 in tuition assistance money was spent on three companies that have links to county employees and are under investigation by the County Attorney’s Office for allegedly using money to sell guns or give away flashlights to hundreds of public safety officials.
Two police officers, Sgt. Alfven Uy and Detective Aaron Bailey, are listed in state records as co-owners of one of those companies, Global Law Enforcement Advisory Group.
The IG’s report notes that both officers answered “no” when asked on a 2004 secondary employment application: “Is the employer, owner, manager or immediate supervisor a Montgomery County Police Department employee?”
Neither officer could not be reached for comment.
The report also notes inconsistencies in other applications for secondary employment that were not followed up by the Ethics Commission, and that three public safety officials did not receive approval from the commission for their second jobs.
The heads of the Ethics Commission and the Human Resources Office did not return calls seeking comment.
The county reinstituted the tuition program for most employees last month with new rules. Police officers and firefighters are still suspended from using the program while their respective unions appeal the suspension.
