Christopher Mazzella, Inspector General, uncovered a small fraud that I think is the tip of the iceberg. For example, the County Commissioners get money to give to charities, non-profits and small businesses. There are suppose to be random audits of these charities/non-profits, but when I asked to see the audits, they told me they had never done one...EVER.The County should do audits on a regular basis, and as Mazzella suggests, they should monitor the programs they are funding to weed out con artists. If they did their "due diligence" they might uncover more like Mr. Word's scam. He used $175,000 of our tax dollars "to pay debts, travel and buy land in Colorado" instead of buying the Subway franchise he was given the money for from Metro Action Plan. The County should heed what Mazzella said:
"This is where we see a tremendous failure in government to properly monitor the program and to do any sort of due diligence. A simple phone call to Subway, for example . . . would have revealed that Word was not a franchise owner."
February 13th article follows:
MIAMI HERALD
Miami-Dade agency lashed after fraud arrest
The county inspector general detailed how a businessman bilked a Miami-Dade agency of $175,000 -- and how local government failed to detect it.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com
The Miami-Dade inspector general chided a local government agency Wednesday for awarding $175,000 to a resident who claimed he was going to open businesses in Overtown -- but used the money to pay debts, travel and buy land in Colorado.
Inspector General Christopher Mazzella said the Metro-Miami Action Plan agency, a community partnership of Miami-Dade County, the city of Miami and Miami-Dade Public Schools, gave the money to Robert Lee Word to open a Subway restaurant and other businesses in the predominantly black Miami neighborhood without verifying how he used the money.
''The lesson here is very simple,'' Mazzella told a news conference at his downtown Miami office, where he announced Word's arrest on fraud charges.
``Government, as the steward of taxpayer dollars, must exhibit diligence and demand comprehensive and pro-active oversight of money it disburses to ensure that our community benefits in the formation of jobs and businesses rather than con artists.''
Bill Simmons, who oversees Metro-Miami Action Plan contracts, declined to comment when questioned about the allegations by Gary Nelson of Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS 4. ''I can't speak to that,'' he said. ``That's all part of the investigation.''
Word could not be reached for comment. He was in detention Wednesday afternoon, and no defense attorney was listed for him in public records. Mazzella said his office ''is looking at other grant disbursements, not necessarily tied to Metro-Miami Action Plan,'' but declined further comment.
He noted, however, that investigators were confident there was ''no collusion within government'' with Word -- ``other than sheer incompetence and lack of oversight.''
Mazzella said the case began in January 2005 when Word formed a corporation called BCJ and struck an agreement with Metro-Miami Action Plan for money to open a Subway outlet, an art gallery and an outplacement agency in Overtown. Word claimed he was a Subway restaurant owner and was expanding into Overtown.
Based on those assertions and forged documents, Mazzella said, Word was awarded the $175,000.
Within a year, Mazzella said, Word deposited the funds in two bank accounts and began using the cash for personal items. Among other things, he spent $6,000 on Colorado land, $4,000 in trips, $9,000 toward his wife's mortgage, about $3,000 in delinquent child support, and covered cellphone bills and a $143 Red Lobster dinner.
He also paid about $7,000 in personal debt and made $1,250 in political contributions to local candidates. Mazzella said there was no evidence the candidates knew Word.
''This is where we see a tremendous failure in government to properly monitor the program and to do any sort of due diligence,'' Mazzella said. ``A simple phone call to Subway, for example . . . would have revealed that Word was not a franchise owner.''
5 comments:
When are the criminals at Miami Action Plan going to be indicted?
Who is responsible for Miami Action Plan and why is it used as a piggy bank for low IQ "administrators" and other criminals?
What really ticks me off is this is about the 589th story of MMAP being totally incompetent or downright criminal in wasting public tax dollars and no one does anything but talk about it. Lord only knows what has gone unreported due to lack of due diligence by any overseers. Our pathetic county commissioners continue to fund it despite all of the problems and misdeeds in the past. And they wonder why so many people hate them and county government in general?
Who is responsible?
Is the Miami Action Plan still renting office space?
Who is fighting to get our money back.
Isn't William Perry involved?
Awe Hoss take it easy us brothers gotta a right to make a buck too or do you think we just gonna sit here and watch all these good old boys and cubans takes all the money. This ain't the Ponderosa you know.
RIP Howard Gary your legacy is alive and well specially at MMAP.
While sometimes agencies get serious long term audits, there have been little checks written and the gifted agency was not held accountable to turn over a final work product or a final report on the granted money. At least years ago, this was true.
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