New Orleans, La. - The city's inspector general wrote a scathing letter on spending habits at the Orleans Sewerage and Water Board.
The letter lists a number of problems, some of which were outlined in a series of FOX 8 Lee Zurik investigations.
The report, released Tuesday afternoon, appears to be one of the most critical yet of a city agency that badly needs more money.
The three page document cites a February FOX 8 report showing that the executive director, Marcia St. Martin is entitled to a $175,000 lifetime annuity, and a $877,000 lump sum payment, and says at the current rate of the Sewerage & Water Board construing 28 percent of its monies into certain pension funds, revenues from proposed rate increases could be consumed by pension obligations.
The report also says that the Sewerage and Water Board is the "most likely of the city's component entities to engage in fraud, waste and abuse, according to the standard risk assessment methodology."
The report goes on to highlight a number of problems including medical costs nearly three times higher than the city of New Orleans, a board that continues to be involved in procurement decisions, and 123 take home cars. That's one for every seven employees.
Worse yet, the inspector general says the Sewerage and Water Board's biggest problem is it's failure to fix the problem identified in the prosecution of it's felonious former director Benjamine Edwards.
The report goes on to make a series of recommendations to rebuild public trust so that the agency can effectively manage money needed to make nearly a billion dollars worth of infrastructure improvements.
It calls for the board to change it's bylaws to prohibit board participation in procurement.
It also calls for a review to assess the pension fund's sustainability, and it calls for the board to adopt the city's take home car policy.
The report says the Sewerage and Water Board needs significant oversight, and suggests using a percentage of existing revenues to pay for such oversight in order to provide the public assurances that revenues would be spent properly.
The report also recommends that board be placed under the city's Chief Administrative Officer.
The timing of this report is critical since the city is now considering going to the voters to perhaps double tax money now going to the Sewerage and Water Board.
