City of Chicago Office of Inspector General Releases Final 2013 Quarterly Report

By Jon Graef in News on Jan 19, 2014 8:00PM

The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General released its final quarterly report of 2013, which they say "reflects a maturing oversight body that fully inhabits its statutory mission to root out misconduct, waste, and inefficiency."

Amongst the findings in the 35-page report, which can be found in full here: that OIG mostly declines to investigate "the vast majority of complaints" it receives "due to a lack of resources." Indeed, of nearly 500 complaints received, 340 were declined and only 35 complaints resulted in a full investigation.

But what they did find was worthy of the public's attention. For instance: that Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) personnel and contractors violated the City’s Personnel Rules and the Shakman Accord, which aims to protect "those who believe they have been subjected to political discrimination by the City of Chicago in any employment decision."

The Trib goes further into detail, with Hal Dardick writing that, "between 2006 and 2010, at least two managers and four employees directed five other companies that already held contracts with the agency to give work to the consultants...".

But while the reported offenses took place during the "took place during the waning years of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 22-year tenure," the investigations took years to complete. Two CDOT managers and a CDOT employee are no employed by the city as a result of the investigation, while the other employees involved were given brief suspensions.

Read more about the report's findings here, and read the whole report itself here.