D.C.’s finance office did not check the backgrounds of job applicants who later stole from taxpayers, a new report by the D.C. auditor has concluded.
Finance officials under city Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi failed to screen applicants and never checked employees’ backgrounds after they were hired, Deborah Nichols wrote in a report dated Friday.
Without “pre-employment background checks, an employee with significant financial problems may be placed in a position of trust where temptation is rigorously tested, the internal control environment is weak and internal controls are nonexistent, inadequate, or function poorly,” Nichols wrote.
Friday’s report followed up on a May audit that found that finance employees were helping themselves to thousands of dollars in cash from city coffers. That report came out as the finance office was still reeling from revelations that a low-level bureaucrat pilfered nearly $50 million through a phony property tax refund scam.
Finance office spokesman David Umansky hotly disputed Nichols’ findings. He said that Gandhi’s staff has been thoroughly screened for years and that Gandhi has taken the further step of re-checking employees who were hired before background checks were required.
“What I’m telling you is, when I was hired, I had to provide a raft of information — including past tax returns,” Umansky said. “Anytime someone is hired, a complete investigation is done.”
D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, wasn’t swayed by Umansky’s pleadings. She called Nichols’ finding “jaw-dropping.”
“It really calls into question the good judgment and oversight of the managers,” she said.
Asked whether that includes Gandhi himself, Cheh said: “He was in charge there, too, right?”
