A District resident reported his car stolen, only to learn that it had been towed by the city and left to accumulate eight parking tickets before police matched the car to the stolen vehicle report. That’s just one of several city mishaps reported in the inspector general’s annual report. For fiscal year 2010, which ended Sept. 30, the inspector general’s investigations division presented 48 cases of alleged misconduct by city employees and residents in their dealings with the District to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Of those, 33 resulted in arrests. There were six indictments and 22 convictions. The investigations resulted in restitution orders of more than $2.6 million.
But then there were the cases that the inspector general’s office handed off to District departments and agencies. The idea, the audit says, “is to hold agency heads accountable for thoroughly addressing issues of mismanagement and inefficiency within their respective agencies.” It’s within these referrals that cases like the following can be found:
» A resident’s car slipped through the cracks between the Department of Motor Vehicles, the police department and the Department of Public Works. It started with a DPW employee not informing anyone — police, the DMV, the car’s owner — that the resident’s car had been towed. The resident reported the car stolen. The car went on to accumulate eight parking tickets because parking enforcement failed to check the car against stolen vehicle listings. DMV later voided the tickets at the police department’s request.
» An employee who worked for the city’s chief financial officer was investigated for filling in a blank check accidentally sent by a taxpayer. It was determined the employee filled in the blank check with the taxpayer’s outstanding balance and cashed it, not knowing that the taxpayer was making monthly payments toward the balance. The CFO corrected the error by refunding the taxpayer $179 to cover overdraft fees. The CFO has instituted a new policy that all blank checks must be returned to the taxpayer.
» A resident received an unpaid parking ticket notice for a “Mercedes-Benz Audi.” But he didn’t own an Audi. When he protested the ticket, he was told to provide a copy of the Audi’s registration. Obviously, that wasn’t possible since he didn’t own one. He did, however, own a Mercedes-Benz — which was out of the country when the ticket was issued. Eventually it was dismissed.
