We are in agreement that "APS" was routinely paying one of its vendors $365 dollars for $16 worth of parts and about an hour of labor. $8 each for rubber belts and $300 an hour for labor.
The APS Board of Education would rather you not think of it as wasting thousands and thousands of dollars. Instead, they would rather you think about the APS employee who stumbled onto the scam and fixed it. In truth, she is lucky she wasn't punished for revealing the waste.
The Journal dba "the editors" are happy to help out, link.
The APS Board of Education rightly recognized Cruz’ contribution during its meeting last week. She deserves a nod of appreciation from the community of taxpayers, too.What taxpayers deserve, more than an opportunity to nod to Cruz, is the opportunity to hold accountable, whomever signed off on lack of oversight that allowed the vendor to rip off the system .
Who was that?
If the Journal investigated, would they find APS COO Brad Winter's signature on the manifest lack of oversight that enabled the scam in the first place. Would they find APS Supt Winston Brooks'.The buck stops where?
Taxpayers will never know because the Journal will not investigate and report upon real problems in the leadership of the APS. They would rather heap praise upon them instead.
They would rather help them cover up than uncover problems.
APS Supt Winston Brooks is responsible for covering up felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of their publicly funded private police force. The journal reported, link, on misappropriation of funds and illegal criminal background checks on whistleblowers; felony criminal misconduct.
The truth is in the findings of at least three investigations into the public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS. In particular, the Caswell Report; findings from an impartial, independent investigation. The leadership of the APS is hiding the findings of all of the investigations.
The Journal in the meantime and in the person of Managing Editor Kent Walz, joined APS School Board President and NM FOG Vice President Marty Esquivel in bamboozling the FOG Board of Directors into giving Brooks their formerly prestigious Dixon Award for heroes of transparency.Brooks got an award for hiding public records; records that FOG itself had argued belonged to public knowledge.
Taxpayers are not saving thousands and thousand of dollars. The dollars they save will be wasted somewhere else because the system hasn't changed. The players haven't changed. The outcome will not change.
Public resources will continue to be wasted, our power will continue to be used against the public interests, until the day the board members and administrators are honestly accountable within their public service, to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.
The leadership of the APS will not talk about executive and administrative standards and accountability. The Journal will not investigate and report upon executive and administrative standards and accountability.
Standards will remain too low and, accountability to those standards too uncertain to protect the public interests. We will continue to get ripped off by unscrupulous vendors.
photos Mark Bralley
3 comments:
If journalists were doing their job, they would ask how many other governmental agencies in ABQ and NM are also getting greased by this vendor.
I wouldn't be surprised if this vendor is sharing some of his excess payment with someone who decides about the purchasing. So they have a vested interest in keeping this vendor.
APS learned long ago not to accept cash rewards from contractors. Instead, they get new roofs on their homes provided, free services of sorts, free airline vouchers, vacation junkets, etc...
These gifts are a lot harder to trace and prove than money transfers.
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