Auditor Probe?

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Aug. 25, 2010) PERTH AMBOY — City Council President Kenneth Balut requested at the Council ’s last meeting that City Law Director Mark Blunda look-into a possible lawsuit against the auditing firms that might have overlooked the alleged theft of $216,495 from the City of Perth Amboy by insurance brokers who have been charged with collecting payments for a non-existent “wellness program” for city employees. Such a recovery was advocated in an editorial published in the Aug. 4 Amboy Beacon, which stated, “We also call for the immediate hiring of a forensic auditor to scour the district’s books and a special counsel to pursue the recovery of ALL funds due the district, including reimbursement of payments that were made to those responsible for protecting the taxpayers’ money from any predators, both inside and outside the district.”  That reference was to the alleged theft of $2,593,400 over nearly six years from the Perth Amboy Board of Education by insurance brokers who have been charged with collecting payments for other healthcare-related programs that never existed. Blunda was requested by Balut to “investigate if the old auditors can be held-accountable for not catching this.” The alleged schemes are believed to have been uncovered as the result of a year-long investigation by both federal and state authorities into contracts between local governments and school boards and the insurance brokers who manage their policies. Sources indicated that there have been separate ongoing probes of insurance contracts in about 30 municipalities and school districts in at-least 10 counties throughout the state for about a year by both the State Attorney General’s Office and the FBI. However, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark would neither confirm nor deny the existence of a federal probe, and nobody has been charged in connection with any federal investigation.