Good afternoon!

OK, I'm back. and before i start my thoughts, please indulge an old-timer while the Courier is trashed. Payback is a Bitch, non?

1. The article's headline for two days referred to "discks". the freakin' headline? perhaps they enrolled in the BoBo (excuse me!, of course I meant "Rob") School of typos and other faux pas.

2. assessor's? Sorry, no deal. it is the plural here, assessors, as in Board of Assessors. In that case, the apostrophe comes AFTER the s, as in assessors'. Let me recommend a current book on punctuation, Ruth: "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", by Lynn Truss.

3. Wer? fortunatley, that's been corrected. There still remains, however, an incomplete sentence near the end of the article. Geez! I'm not even an English teacher!

OK, so much for the personal stuff, thanks for indulging me.

INSPECTOR GENERAL.

Reports about the return of the famous computer discs to the Town mention that the matter had been referred to the Inspector General. No one seemed to pick up on this, to ask the question: what does that mean? At the mass.gov website, there seemed to be a rather limited scope of matters under the purview if the IG.

1. Prevent waste, fraud & abuse. Well, OK. but how does sending the disks (or info therefrom) "prevent" all these bad things, if they have already occurred? In fact, the website blathers on about reviewing legislation and so on. It would seem that if there had been "waste, fraud & abuse", it would be more appropriate to refer such to the State Police, or Attorney General. this seems like a non-starter.

2. Procurement. Ah, now here is something that might resonate. The IG is charged with oversight of Chapter 30B, the Procurement act. Now, I know a little here, but not a lot. So. where has there been a lot of procurement that the BoS might suspect runs afoul of chap. 30B? Can you say: SEWER. Lots of possibilities, from the new treatment plant to all of the projects extending sewer lines into various neighborhoods.

And, how about Municipal Maint. they must buy lots of stuff, equipment, sand & salt, etc. All of which would fall under chap. 30B.

Remember the infamous tape of one the (many) executive sessions. who were the "two biggest rats"? Was the computer audit an attempt to catch the so-called "rats" in Chap 30B violations?

There are other Town Hall departments that might come into play here, as well as the WPD. It just seems that there are better ways than the excessive expenditure of time, money & public trust the the BoS pursued here. And. it may be for nothing.

3. chapter 40B. Now there's a familiar phrase. the IG is charged with seeing that the numbers of 40B projects work within the law. In particular, there is a provision which limits "profits", as they define them, to 20% of the project cost. In fact, the IG lists a series of letters to cities & towns regarding specific 40B projects, including one in Wareham on Swifts Beach Road. Profits in excess of the 20% threshold are to be returned to the Town. I seem to recall some commentary in the past from the BoS expressing frustration with the process of reviewing the town's projects for compliance with the 40B statute.

thus the question: was part of the computer audit an attempt to amass info regarding the various projects? and is that why the discs/info were referred to the IG?

The blurb on the IG in the State's website notes that the IG falls somewhere between the AG and the State Auditor. It seems odd to me, lacking definitive information, that the computer audit leads to the IG's office. something's up. and wouldn't it be nice to know before April 6?


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April 6, 2010

Take Back Wareham !!!