Now that he's admitted the city messed up with the massive multi-million dollar fraud-hole that is the city's automated payroll system, CityTime, Mayor Bloomberg would like some of those millions back, please! Specifically, he wrote in a letter yesterday, he'd like $600 million back from the project's main contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
The CityTime system is finally up and running but "because the project was apparently tainted by fraud and kickback schemes, the city must be made whole," he wrote in his letter to Walter Havenstein, CEO of SAIC. "I am, therefore, requesting that SAIC reimburse the city for all sums paid to it, approximately $600 million, as well as the cost of investigating and remediating the matter."
The mayor's move comes after SAIC already agreed to return $2.5 million to the city that went to a worker who could not vouch for how he spent his time on the project. Further, last week U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara derided the program as "an unprecedented fraud, which appears to have metastasized over time" in which "virtually the entirety of the more than $600 million that was paid to SAIC was tainted directly or indirectly by fraud."
SAIC, a major defense contractor, isn't quite jumping to return any money though. In a statement, the company responded:
“SAIC understands and shares the outrage expressed by the city at the fraud alleged on the part of former employees and subcontractors on the CityTime program. These actions are an affront to everything we stand for as a company. SAIC is ready to discuss appropriate resolution of this matter, considering the breadth of the fraud alleged and the fact that SAIC delivered a system that the city said this week is working well.”
Earlier in the week the mayor promised that the "People who stole [the money] didn't spend it, and we'll recover a lot of that." But a lot isn't all. Or even close to it. Sources tell the Times that Bloomberg is realistically only hoping to get $100-$200 million back from SAIC. The original budget for the CityTime project was $60 million.
