Closing ranks

Earlier this month, an audit of state contracts with current and former state employees revealed sweetheart deals that have led some lawmakers to suspect "criminal activity."

The irregularities include one employee billing the state for working 25 hours a day -- talk about dedication! -- and another receiving $350 an hour for a job usually rated at $65 an hour. The audit also found numerous cases when employees billed the state for doing contract work at times they were supposed to be working their regular state jobs.

The employees were not identified by name, though more than half had contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who chairs the Legislature's Audit Subcommittee, said the irregularities should be reviewed for possible criminal prosecution by the attorney general.

Thursday, state Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, added her voice to that chorus. "We need to make sure they understand this is something we don't tolerate," said Sen. Cegavske. "We should sever ties with those who submitted false statements."

Daniel Burns, a spokesman for Gov. Jim Gibbons, said Thursday the governor agrees with Sen. Cegavske that the employees should be fired or disciplined, but warned the attorney general must first show that fraud was committed.

Legislative auditor Paul Townsend told Sen. Cegavske and the committee Thursday he did not know if employees who turned in questionable time sheets had been fired.

Both State Budget Director Andrew Clinger and Mike Willden, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, admitted last week there was no proper oversight of these contracts. Both have been retained by Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval.

If you listen closely, the snorting and foot-stomping you will now hear are the state bureaucratic equivalent of the way a herd of musk ox signal each other to form their defensive circle, with all horns pointing outward and each beast's unarmed posterior thus perfectly protected.

Representatives such as Sen. Cegavske and Sen. Leslie must keep up the pressure.

Every one of those contractors had to submit invoices to higher-ranking officials. Unless Gov. Sandoval intends to signal a lot more "business as usual," not only the names of the miscreants but the names of the supervisors who signed off on their chicanery should be made public.

And a few more ties should soon be severed.