By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — The project manager of the scandal-plagued CityTime project has been fired for padding his timesheets, City Comptroller John Liu announced Wednesday, marking the latest controversy surrounding the new automated payroll system designed — ironically — to prevent timekeeping fraud.
The development marks the first time the project's lead contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), has been directly implicated in alleged wrongdoing. Liu's office alleges that CityTime's former Gerard Denault routinely billed the city for hours he didn't necessarily work.
"Obviously New Yorkers can see a great deal of irony in this," Liu said at a hastily called press conference at his office downtown.
"The very company entrusted by our city to build a timekeeping system for New York City employees has grossly mismanaged their own keeping, and in the process overcharged the city taxpayers for sums of money still to be determined," he said.
According to a letter from SAIC to the Financial Information Service Agency released by Liu's office, Denault broke the company's timekeeping rules. It's not immediately clear how many hours Denault overbilled for.
"He routinely recorded set hours each day rather than the actual hours that he worked as we require," the company wrote, adding that, because of the alleged error, "SAIC cannot accurately calculate the amount that should have been billed to the city for his work."
To compensate for the alleged indiscretions, SAIC said it will reimburse the city $2.47 million — the entire amount billed for Denault's work during one project phase. Denault has been on administrative leave since Dec. 2010, the letter said.
In a letter addressed to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Liu called for a "comprehensive review of SAIC's billings to the city" on CityTime as well as other projects.
He told reporters the total amount that should be returned to the city "is potentially far larger" than the $2.5 million that they intend to pay.
Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city will "withhold any and all payments" to SAIC pending the completion of an ongoing review by the Department of Investigation, which includes work by a forensic accountant.
SAIC’s contract with the City expires on June 30, and will not be renewed, LaVorgna said.
The company did not immediately return calls for for comment.
The city currently owes the company $32 million for CityTime, which is now more than 95 percent complete and currently in operation in offices — including Liu's.
Six of the consultants involved in City Time have been charged with profiting from an $80 million kickback scheme brought to light in large part through columns by the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez, who won a Polk Award for his coverage of the mismanagement in the system. The resulting scandal led to the resignation of the city's Office of Payroll Administration Executive Director Joel Bondy.
Liu has been pushing for greater oversight of all city contracts throughout his tenure, and said this is just one example of lax oversight.
"I think it's safe to say that there just has not been enough oversight for the better part of the decade," he said.
