This is a great article illustrating how unwatched commissions can become corrupt. In this case, a New York/New Jersey Waterfront "watchdog" group was found to be corrupt, and the head of it was fired by the Governor of New Jersey. We can always find examples of bad government behavior in New Jersey, and here is another one.
This clearly illustrates the need for every local government agency and in this case, State Commissions, to be subjected to a performance audit (not just the routine, annual financial audit).
Can anyone say North Lake County Hospital District?
vj
Waterfront Commission watchdog group monitoring docks soaked in corruption, says Inspector General
Tuesday, August 11th 2009, 1:26 PM
The watchdog Waterfront Commission was a hotbed of corruption, with its top execs breaking laws, dispensing patronage and mismanaging tax dollars, a new report charges.
In a scathing 60-page report issued Tuesday, New York's Inspector General found the bi-state agency - established in 1953 to combat crime on the docks - was rife with the behavior it was supposed to stop.
"Instead of ridding the waterfront of corruption, this agency itself was corrupt," Inspector General Joseph Fisch said.
The findings led New Jersey Gov. John Corzine to fire Commissioner Michael Madonna, the state's highest-ranking member of the commission. He was axed last Thursday.
The probe, launched in May 2007 after a whistleblower's complaint, uncovered a litany of problems going to the top of the commission:
* General Counsel Jon Deutsch helped a convicted racketeer keep his port business by operating under his wife's name.
* Audit director Frank Natasi ran a private tax preparation business at work - in between surfing the net for porn.
* The agency failed to keep track of a $600,000 Homeland Security grant - money intended to prevent another 9/11.
*
Waterfront Commission detectives were routinely dispatched from
Brooklyn to Manhattan to secure choice parking spaces for high-ranking
officials.
* New York commissioner Chairman Michael Axelrod provided official "police" parking placards to his wife and a wealthy pal.
The report bore out many of the findings in a series of Daily News articles.
