The City of Chicago Office of the Inspector General released its second quarter report for 2014 today, according to a press release. The report provides a summary of OIG activity from April 1 through June 30, 2014.

Read the Office of the Inspector General’s Second Quarter Report.

The report highlights the June dismissal of the City of Chicago as a defendant in the 45-year-old Shakman case and additions to the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Fire Department’s hiring plans that were critical to the City’s achievement of substantial compliance. The court’s ruling formalized OIG oversight responsibilities that had been transitioning from the Federal Monitor over the preceding two years. With the  majority of technical components in place, in the coming quarter OIG will focus on ensuring rigorous compliance oversight and the longer-term objective of effecting a full paradigm shift in City employment practices.

Additional highlights of the report include:

• Following OIG’s investigation, Antoinette Chenier was indicted for her years-long scheme to embezzle money from the Chicago Department of Transportation. The arrest and OIG investigation resulted in the employee’s separation from the City as well as the tightening of permit program protocols and the fast-tracking of improved controls for cash handling citywide.
• An employee compromised a city’s facility security system, rendering the facility vulnerable to theft for more than 10 hours. This security compromise did in fact happen during a period in which $21,800 of copper-lined industrial cable wire were stolen from the facility. In response to OIG’s findings, the Department of Fleet and Facility Management discharged the employee.
• An inspector for the Department of Public Health offered a contractor a passing inspection for becoming a customer of an electricity company that paid commissions to the inspector. The inspector guaranteed this by submitting fraudulent test samples and forms. The inspector also solicited other contractors and homeowners to join the electricity company. CDPH agreed with OIG’s findings and the inspector resigned in lieu of discharge.
• The City secured a promise for $11,693 in restitution following an OIG investigation that a former executive director of a City delegate agency fraudulently obtained personal health and dental insurance in excess of authorized amounts.
• After receiving a Department Notification letter from OIG, leadership at the Department of Finance and CPD met to address a hostile institutional relationship between CPD officers and parking enforcement aides. DOF and CPD developed a plan that they feel will strengthen their partnership and result in better service to the public.