Dear Editor,
Culver City government operates in the horse-and-buggy days of yesteryear when it comes to detecting and preventing fraud, waste and abuse. The City of Los Angeles operates a confidential hotline to report fraud, waste and abuse affecting city resources. The City of Los Angeles teaches residents, government employees, and vendors what to report, e.g.: theft of resources (cash, equipment, supplies or materials); record falsification; payroll fraud and time abuse; kickbacks or bribes; misuse of city equipment or property; contractor fraud; gross mismanagement, including careless expenditures; gross disregard of policy and procedural controls.
Culver City’s current Whistle Blower Policy (2/26/03), which is supposed to protect whistle blowers from retaliation, reads more like a warning not to whistle blow. The Policy details many types of retaliation whistle blowers might suffer and the difficulties of trying to prove that he or she acted in “good faith.”
Culver City needs to learn from others by implementing a flawless procedure to report fraud, waste and abuse, and needs an exclusively-independent-investigative process.
Stay tuned.
Les Greenberg, Esquire
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