EDITORIAL: Dot Kickbacks: For a T-Shirt and Golf Balls, Workers Willingly Cheat State
Posted on: Friday, 24 February 2006, 09:00 CST
By The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Feb. 24--One of the scariest things about the kickbacks an audit found in the N.C. Department of Transportation is how little some people can be bought off for. In exchange for $25 gift cards, golf balls, T-shirts -- nothing valued more than $1,000 -- some DOT workers, five of whom worked in the Charlotte area, admit buying supplies at inflated prices from a chemical company.
Go figure.
According to the state auditor's report released Monday, the employees cost the state more than $8,500 above the market value for cleaning supplies from Stone Cold Chemicals Inc. between November 2001 and September 2003. Under state law, the workers could lose their jobs and be charged with a felony.
The now-defunct Stone Cold Chemicals is the focus of investigations across the country. Four top officials already have pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges in other states.
From the other probes, it's clear that honesty was a foreign concept to Stone Cold. Internal sales documents N.C. investigators examined detailed "premiums" the company offered to government employees. Among those extras were gift cards to Bass Pro Shops, Edwin Watts Golf Shop, Wal-Mart, even Victoria Secret's lingerie.
Amazingly, one worker says she thinks she did nothing wrong. Another blames the Stone Cold sales reps who were "very persistent and tried not to take no for answer." Gee, did any of these workers think about reporting Stone Cold's overtures to a supervisor?
You can't bribe someone who refuses the gift. So the workers who accepted these kickbacks deserve the punishment they get.
This may only be the tip of the iceberg. The probe is continuing and has widened to other state agencies that did business with Stone Cold. DOT says the workers identified so far will be disciplined, though officials won't say how or release the employees' names.
DOT spokesman Ernie Seneca dubbed the findings "troublesome.""We're taking this matter very seriously," he said. And well they should. That some workers are willing to cheat the state in exchange for something as little as a T-shirt is troubling indeed.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
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Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
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