Wareham officials losing patience on oft-delayed computer audit report

By Steve Decosta
sdecosta@s-t.com
October 21, 2010 12:00 AM

WAREHAM — Selectmen want the results of the controversial audit of town-owned computers by the end of the week — or else.

Special counsel Steven Torres was supposed to submit his final report to the board on at least two occasions, but it was delayed again after being put on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

Torres e-mailed the board that he now expected to wrap up his work by Friday, and selectmen, already upset by the numerous delays, intend to hold him to that deadline.

"He's had plenty of time," Town Administrator Mark Andrews said. "We've given him notice: This is it."

When selectmen authorized a $7,500 payment to Torres in June to complete the work, Andrews said he expected a report in several weeks. The administrator said Torres has not been paid a penny of that money and won't be if the report isn't delivered this week.

Andrews said he wasn't yet sure how or when the report would be released to the public.

Andrews said the report from the attorney would be presented to selectmen in the form of "an executive summary" that would not name any individual wrongdoers. After reviewing all of the data, "any individual actions that have to be taken will be taken by the town administrator," Andrews said. "We're trying to figure out the appropriate process for discipline."

Since the audit was initiated in May 2009, the town has blocked computer access to 13 websites, Andrews said.

In addition to the payment authorized to Torres, the audit has cost the town more than $58,000.

Along with the money paid to Torres, the town has been billed $46,000 by Global Digital Forensics, $10,103 by town counsel Kopelman & Paige for work related to the audit, and $1,898 by Yunits Associates of Brockton, which represented the town before in grand jury proceedings conducted by the district attorney.

Andrews said GDF completed its work earlier this year and Torres was hired because "we wanted a report done. We wanted to put (the data) into an additional form."

On Friday, May 22, 2009, with most town employees on a mandated work furlough, a team of computer experts from GDF copied the hard drives of most town-owned computers. Others, including those at the Wareham Free Library, Municipal Maintenance Department and sewage treatment plant, were copied shortly thereafter.

After at least two town departments complained, the District Attorney's Office seized the disks and conducted a grand jury investigation, although the office never revealed what it was looking for on the disks. The disks were returned to the town in March.

The selectmen initially did not announce what they were hoping to find on the computers.

Several months later, at a community forum, Selectman Jane Donahue said, "It came to our attention not once, not twice, but many times" that the town computers were being used for "wrongdoing," including viewing pornography, running a home business and shopping online.