By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The Bloomberg administration official responsible for overseeing the CityTime project to eliminate fraud resigned from his post Thursday following criminal allegations that consultants he hired stole $80 million in public funds.
Serving as the executive director of the Office of Payroll Administration until his suspension without pay on Dec. 16, Joel Bondy was running the CityTime initiative, a project designed to electronically monitor hours worked by city employees at certain agencies.
But after four consultants of CityTime's quality assurance firm Spherion were charged with stealing $80 million in city funds on Dec. 15, Bondy was suspended without pay.
On his weekly radio show Friday morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not rule out the possibility that Bondy will be charged in connection to the fraud.
Brody reportedly wrote positive evaluations for the Spherion consultants at a time when they were allegedly ripping off millions.
He is also reportedly a former employee of the Manhattan "staffing services" firm.
The mayor said he "can't speak for the [law enforcement] agencies" but "would assume" Bondy is under investigation.
"I assume so, but it's their place to say it," Bloomberg said.
He stressed the importance of continuing with the program, which he claimed will be an important money saving tool for the city.
"By and large it saves an enormous amount of time and labor," he said.
"Mark Mazer and his cohorts allegedly used the City as their own personal cash cow, making misrepresentations that led to the misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds," Bharara said.