STATE HIGHWAY EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION MEETING

June 11, 2002

Attending: Steve Cox, Sharon Schulte, Mike Golden, Dave DeWitt, Wayne Hinkle

Sharon Schulte gave an overview of the Inspector General’s office. She said when the office was created there were 16 positions and only two new ones (inspectors) have been added along with one support staff person. The office is investigating eight to 12 new cases a month, three or four a week, and each case is taking longer to process. The main focus is on fraud. In 2001, the office handled 100 cases.

Sharon said a lot of employees don’t understand or are not aware of the functions of the IG’s office. The office identifies areas of vulnerability to fraud, waste and abuse. “We’re not looking for employees stealing pencils,” Sharon said. The office also investigates management misconduct and internal/external EEO functions and DBE issues.

Sharon said 65-70 percent of the investigative staff’s time is spent looking into contractor/vendor issues, such as product substitution, non-conforming products, false claims, bribery and kickbacks. The second most-investigated area is employee misuse of equipment, theft, forgery, etc. She noted Headquarters and District 6 seem to have the most investigations.

The IG’s office works with Audit and Business Analysis and state and local law enforcement. It also works with a federal joint task force on contractor/vendor cases.

“We take confidentiality very seriously,” Sharon said. “That applies to the person under investigation and those who have brought the case to our attention.”

Steve said employees are concerned the IG’s office will grow. “Why do we need the IG office? Why don’t we hire three or four investigators and give the results to the authorities?” he asked.

Sharon replied, We need to have some independence. That’s why the Legislature wanted to create this office by statute. More and more government agencies have an IG to serve as the watchdog for government money. Seven states have an IG in one agency or another: Kansas, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts and Missouri.

Sharon explained MoDOT employees are obligated to cooperate with IG investigations. They may have an attorney, but there is no appeal process. “We do not make any recommendations regarding discipline,” she said. “We are fact finders.”

The IG office does not use subpoenas because there is no reason for it, Sharon said. MoDOT will never use subpoenas “as long as I or Henry Hungerbeeler are here.”

The discussion moved to the transportation funding bill, Proposition B. Steve said, What can we do to help pass the legislation?

Mike Golden said an outside group is doing the fundraising for a media campaign that will begin after July 4. MoDOT is working with the that group to see what we can say to the public, what options are available if the funding is approved. We should know that this week.

Mike also said Henry Hungerbeeler and Kevin Keith plan to “hit the road” June 17 through June 24 to talk to people about focus group results. “Our intention is to educate,” he said.

Dave DeWitt said we can’t to anything to encourage people to vote yes.

Mike Golden said they will talk about the impact of the funding on employees and what this money would permit us to accomplish.

The third item discussed was attendance at commission meetings. Dave DeWitt said he’d prefer no change in the policy at this time. “We don’t want employees at the meetings unless there is a significant reason to attend,” he said. Employees are welcome to take a vacation day if they want to take a day off to attend a commission meeting.

Mike Golden brought up the Job Study, saying it was on schedule despite “a couple of snags.” Dave said we want to make sure the information is right. “We want to perform some logic checks,” he said.

Dave added that one of the goals is to create a system employees can rely on. Since the 1996 reorganization, there’s been no set system to determine what a job is worth. “We need a consistent, believable system,” he said.

The meeting was adjourned.