The consultant in charge of the city's horrendously overbudget CityTime automated payroll project, the same man who couldn't keep track of his own hours, was arrested yesterday and charged this morning with taking at least $5 million in illegal kickbacks while on the project. His lawyer says he is not guilty and will be exonerated in court. Meanwhile, guess what? Mayor Bloomberg's people say that the CityTime system is "essentially" working!
“It is deeply disturbing that while he was hired to help cut costs and save money, in reality, Gerard Denault was allegedly ripping city taxpayers off to to pad his own pockets,” said Preet Bharara, the US attorney in Manhattan. Denault, 49, is also being charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. He is the eighth person arrested in the scandal. One defendant has died and another has already pleaded guilty and is helping prosecutors.
CityTime, a project to consolidate the city's payroll infrastructure that was supposed to cost $68 million when it was introduced by Rudy Giuliani, has now cost the city more than $740 million dollars—at least $80 million of which was stolen by shady consultants.
On Monday the mayor's office announced that the project is "essentially" fully operational. The NYPD started getting paid through the system last month, which is actually a pretty huge milestone for the project.
"It's been an agonizing multi-year event with obviously a number of substantial problems, including cost overruns, but in the last six months we've wrestled it down, taken out the main vendor and some of the subcontractors, re-tooled the process and brought it in-house," Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith said. "It's about where it should have been."
