Friday Dump: DAS makes limited release of interim audit on school construction scandal after long delay and fall campaign.  

The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) released not long before 4 p.m. Friday a limited number of copies of a school construction grant program audit. The release many months after Commissioner Michelle Gilman pledged regular updates would be provided to legislators. 

The multi-billion dollar program has been the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Audit updates were not provided last year, protecting Governor Ned Lamont from having sunshine cast on an embarrassing failure of oversight by his administration during his and Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz’s re-election campaign.

The limited release of the interim report comes three days before the legislature’s School Construction Project Priority Review Committee meets Monday afternoon. The status of the audit is likely to be a top interest of legislators. 

Calls to Gilman’s office went to voicemail Friday afternoon. Its website continues to list Lora Rae Anderson as the head of communications. She’s now the chief of staff at Department of Transportation. The most recent press release on the department’s website was posted in May of last year.

Gilman’s predecessor at DAS, Josh Geballe, entered into a memorandum of understanding early in the Lamont administration that transferred the school construction office from DAS to the state budget office. That move accommodated then-school construction office head Kostantinos Diamantis’ move to the budget office to serve as deputy to his close friend Melissa McCaw. The Geballe/McCaw agreement violated state law and was terminated when scandal struck the Lamont administration and the school construction program.

Published January 20, 2023.