Hartford, Conn. (WTIC Radio)-Two state officials answered questions from three legislative committees today
regarding the school construction scandal that caused the Lamont administration to fire Deputy Budget Director Kosta Diamantis,
prompting audits and an investigation by the FBI.
Michelle Gilman, acting Director of the Department of Administrative Services, said an external audit should be
completed by April, allowing review by the legislature.
"We're working to contract with an external auditing firm to review our school construction grants program. As well as Hazmat funds that served many school districts across the state," she said.
Noel Petra, Deputy Commissioner of Real Estate and Construction Services." We can't possibly be involved in every single municipality's procurement process for the use of either the state contract or for schools. The municipalities have to be responsible for themselves. State Representative Holly Cheeseman (R-East Lyme, Salem) responded. "With all due respect, it sounds like you're blaming the victims here and I find that offensive."
State Representative Dorinda Borer (D-West Haven) said with an eleven percent holdback on school projects, could be difficult for a distressed municipality, if the project and audit are drawn out.
"Today's forum brings us no closer to holding government accountable for respecting the sacrifices of taxpayer," said Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford). "It's clear that no legislative investigation has begun. This was not a hearing. This was not an investigation. This was not a thorough examination of all the stakeholders. Lawmakers were instructed to limit their questions in length and scope to exclude discussion of past actions of the executive branch. You can't have an informational forum if you don’t want to find out the information. The FBI is investigating alleged wrongdoing that misappropriated taxpayers' sacrifices. But today CT Democrats showed that they don’t want to know anything about that investigation or alleged disrespect of taxpayers. This doesn’t restore public trust. It fans the fire of taxpayer angst. Republicans repeatedly called on lawmakers to work together to bring balanced, bipartisan, legislative hearings to fruition. Our calls are ignored. Today's extremely limited forum brings us no closer to truth or transparency."
House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) said: "Today's quick-pitch 'informational' forum was not only wholly inadequate given the significance of the issue at hand, it represented a continuation of a disturbing trend that has Democratic leadership controlling the message and policy that's coming out of this building by limiting the number and scope of questions we ask. The idea that elected legislators 'resist the temptation' to inquire about what transpired in the school construction bidding process during a forum about fixes to the system is ridiculous. Nothing said or presented today will give Connecticut residents an iota of confidence that Democrats are prioritizing transparency over party politics when the governor's bureaucrats deflect even the simplest questions, such as 'what went wrong here?' There's no reason we can't hold an official legislative investigation into how we've arrived at this point. Given what citizens witnessed today, it's more apparent than ever that this type of inquiry is needed."