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February 19, 2014Bishop to lecture at Nicholls State
February 19, 2014
An investigation by the District Attorney’s office concluded no wrongdoing was committed by any Terrebonne Parish employees after allegations surfaced about the installation of parish lights on private property.
Deficiencies in recordkeeping prevented the result of any criminal charges applicable to this case.
The allegations of “public corruption” were brought forth by Ronald Rainey, a Houma resident and former construction worker whose company was contracted by the parish. At a Dec. 4 council meeting, Rainey presented the council with pictures and an explanation of lights, paid for by taxpayers, which were installed by contactors on private property at Belmere Luxury Apartments.
The order was placed by someone from the electrical distribution division on behalf of the contractor, which resulted in the parish paying for the materials.
“We believe there was some confusion as to who was the ultimate purchaser because it was shipped to Terrebonne Parish (property) to be stored. Ultimately, the parish inadvertently paid for these lights to the tune of $5,000,” Joe Waitz Jr., District Attorney of Terrebonne Parish, said at last week’s council meeting.
“We couldn’t find anybody who was ultimately responsible,” Waitz said. “We think it’s inadvertent.”
As of Feb. 12, the parish was reimbursed $5,460.50 by Belmere Luxury Apartments.
Parish President Michel Claudet made a request for the investigation to clear the parish of any allegations of wrongdoing.
“We received a check for the invoice and we certainly are happy that we found out the problems with the procedures in that department,” Claudet said.
Utilities Director Tom Bourg said the parish warehouse and finance department is in the process of creating a concise inventory of all items within the operating divisions to prevent a scenario such as this from happening again.
He said it is not customary for the parish to store materials pending use by a private development, but in this case, it was inadvertently ordered by the parish.
“Probably the center point of this is that throughout the operating divisions, there are an accumulation of critical spare parts which are typically not included in our regular warehouse inventory,” Bourg said at the meeting.
“We have determined it is desirable and preferable that we inventory all of those materials and that we account for them through the regular warehouse and inventory system,” Bourg added.
Since the investigation, the utilities department has provisions in place, which require more of an audit trail from government workers in the chain of command, and also includes foremen, technicians and servicemen to keep work logs.
“We’re taking steps to make sure that people who are directly in the chain of command are responsible for signing off on any purchases of this nature,” Bourg said. “And that it is not initiated by a clerk based on representations or requests by contractors. That it is someone in our organization that is directly involved both in purchases and knows about our warehouse inventory.”
Based on contracts with the state, Bourg said the parish can buy large quantities of some items at a cheaper rate, but the parish does not have a significant advantage when it comes to making purchases over any contractors.
“In a direct buyer to vendor relationship, I don’t believe we have any particular pricing advantage,” he said.
Allegations of public funds used to install lights at Belmere Luxury Apartments in Houma were dismissed after an investigation by the District Attorney’s office concluded no wrongdoing. The owner of the complex reimbursed Terrebonne Parish $5,460.50 for the lights that were mistakenly ordered by the parish.
