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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Ind. Gov't. - "Ex-state employee collects '05 travel pay"

Niki Kelly of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported, in a May 2, 2006 story headlined "State FSSA exec goes from public to private at twice the price,":

INDIANAPOLIS – On his last day as a state employee, a top Fort Wayne executive at the Family and Social Services Administration signed an outside contract to perform the same job at a much higher rate of pay – $180,000 a year.

Richard E. Rhoad’s compensation is nearly double the governor’s salary, and is $70,000 more than Mitch Roob receives as the head of the agency.

But Roob and State Budget Director Chuck Schalliol defended Rhoad’s unique contract, saying it is sometimes worth extra money to get the right person to do the job and have geographic diversity in staff members. * * *

Roob admits, he offered Rhoad the position of chief financial officer and promised the state would pay for his Indianapolis housing during the week and travel expenses for trips back and forth to Fort Wayne where his family remained.

Kelly had a number of additional stories following the Rhoad state employee/contractor situation - here is a list of those the ILB noted.

Today Kelly reports again on this story, under the headline "Ex-state employee collects '05 travel pay." Some quotes:

The outgoing state budget director and current Department of Administration commissioner recently approved an exception for $13,700 in reimbursements for travel made by a former state employee from Fort Wayne nearly two years ago.

The disclosure came in a June 29 inspector general’s report involving Richard Rhoad, a Fort Wayne businessman who previously was chief financial officer for the state’s Family and Social Services Administration.

The joint investigation conducted by the inspector general and the State Board of Accounts focused on mileage, lodging, and breakfast and dinner per diem vouchers submitted by Rhoad between Jan. 9, 2005, and June 17, 2005.

Rhoad, who lived in Allen County at the time, was reimbursed at the direction of FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob, but the reimbursements were not in compliance with the state’s travel regulations, the report said. Efforts to reach Rhoad for comment were not successful Tuesday.

Essentially, Rhoad would drive to Indianapolis from Fort Wayne on Sunday evening or Monday morning, stay at hotels in Indianapolis during the week and drive back to Fort Wayne on Friday night.

He was reimbursed despite the fact that his work station was his Indianapolis office. According to state guidelines, employees are not allowed to claim mileage from home to work, and overnight lodging and per diem are also not allowed.

State rules provide for an exception to be approved by the state budget director and commissioner of the Department of Administration. Roob sought that exception in January 2005, but it was denied.

In March 2005, Roob wrote a memo to the FSSA travel office authorizing the continuation of travel payments to Rhoad, the report said.

In July 2005, the Department of Administration notified the state auditor to cease further travel reimbursements to Rhoad because an exception had not been granted.

The inspector general concurred with the State Board of Accounts that Rhoad was not entitled to travel reimbursement and joined in a request for reimbursement that was given to FSSA on May 2 to allow it a response before the report was released to the public.

Instead, Roob submitted an additional request for an exception on May 29 to outgoing State Budget Director Charles Schalliol and Department of Administration Commissioner Carrie Henderson.

The exception was subsequently approved by both, and the investigation was closed, according to Inspector General David Thomas.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 4, 2007 07:53 AM
Posted to Indiana Government