DOCS Fraud Audit – Video News Release

State DOCS Boss Cheated State Out Of $500,000

(narrator)
It's always nice having Friday off -- so wouldn't it be great to take EVERY Friday off and still get paid your full time salary? 

(narrator)
According to an audit by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, that's what an employee at the Department of Correctional Services did for 17 years -- with New York taxpayers footing the bill.

(DiNapoli, from press conf.)
"This certainly gives new meaning to the phrase 'casual Fridays.' In this case he didn't just dress down, but he didn't even bother to show up on Fridays."  

(narrator)
The Comptroller's audit -- conducted with the State Inspector General Joseph Fisch  --  found that Howard Dean, former director of a prison food processing plant called the "Cook/Chill" facility in Rome, defrauded New York State to the tune of half a million dollars.

(narrator)
For 17 years Dean never worked on Fridays, but he got paid for it. That cost taxpayers almost two-hundred and thirty-thousand dollars -- plus eighteen-thousand dollars in vacation time he never really earned.

(DiNapoli, from press conf.)
"Quite simply, this is outrageous. And it's also outrageous that the former director's supervisors condoned and signed off on some of this theft. It's unacceptable that the individuals responsible for our correctional system deliberately disregarded the rules and disregarded New York's taxpayers."

(narrator)
But that's not all. Comptroller DiNapoli uncovered that Howard Dean cheated the State out of much more.


	Like two-hundred-and-five thousand dollars in improper travel reimbursements.

	Thirty-two thousand dollars for inappropriate use of a state vehicle, including gas and tolls.

	Falsified claims for travel expenses amounting to seventy-three hundred dollars.

	Living in state owned housing he wasn't entitled to, valued at twenty-nine hundred dollars.

	And he double dipped on meal reimbursements worth eighteen hundred dollars.

Add it all up and Howard Dean stole five-hundred thousand dollars from New York taxpayers.


(DiNapoli, from press conf.)
"The findings of this audit are breathtaking and demonstrate patterns of behavior that are totally unacceptable."(3:02)

(narrator)
The Comptroller and Inspector General have referred the case to the Oneida County District Attorney for possible criminal prosecution -- and Comptroller DiNapoli has launched a second audit to find out if the fraud is even more widespread than what's already been discovered. 

(DiNapoli)
"Every dime of taxpayer money must be used responsibly, and when it's not we need to stop it, we need to find out why that occurred, and we need to be sure that it does not happen again. What happened at the cook/chill facility was a crime against the taxpayers of New York. We certainly cannot let this happen again."