Beck Statement on BPU Hung Jury

Statement from Senator Jennifer Beck (R-12) on the hung jury in the BPU whistleblower trial:

"While a jury may have been divided on whether Jeanne Fox retaliated against an employee who identified mismanagement at the BPU, the State Auditor and Treasury Department have confirmed in no uncertain terms the vastness of her mismanagement. It's time for Chairman Adler to end this circus and her tenure of mismanagement."

Treasury Audit

An audit performed by the Department of the Treasury, dated December 8, 2004, was the catalyst for subsequent audits and investigations. That audit first exposed how BPU program funding was being funneled through an unlawfully established bank account with Wachovia. The account was outside the State accounting system in violation of Office of Management and Budget circulars. The account was accessible only by Jeanne Fox and several other staff at BPU.

Aside from focusing on the unlawful Wachovia account established outside the accounting system, the audit exposed: how grants were awarded outside established treasury circular letters (page 6); files and procurement records were shredded, destroyed, and lost (pages 9 and 12); cronyism was rampant with grant awards (pages 10, 11, 14, and 16); reporting and oversight was irregular and inadequate (pages 15 and 16); and potential conflicts of interest were littered throughout grants and contracts (pages 21-23.)

State Auditor Audit

The State Auditor found that prior to 2005, the financial transactions of the Office of Clean Energy (OCE) relating to the Clean Energy Program were undertaken by a bank, which acted as the fiscal agent to manage renewable energy funds and disburse them. These transactions were not reflected in the State's accounting system. (page 2)

The State Auditor also found that records critical to the evaluation of proposals relating to the 2003 awarding of $2.7 million in Clean Energy Program monies "were no longer available," and that as a result, the Auditor was unable to "verify that decisions were made in evaluation process that were fair, unbiased, and were merited based upon scoring procedures established by the OCE. (page 3)

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