By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

DC 37 has made history again. After an investigation that started with a huge push from our union, the corruption-tainted contractor on the CityTime payroll project avoided prosecution by agreeing to pay New York City $500 million - the largest known recovery of funds ever in any city or state contract fraud.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the project was "corrupted to its core" in "one of the most brazen frauds ever committed against the city." Working with Comptroller John Liu and the city Dept. of Investigations, Bharara built an ironclad case against Science Applications International Corp., set a powerful precedent and provided vital funds for our city. His ongoing investigations and others are expected to bring in additional funds:

• The U.S. Justice Dept. is still pressing SAIC and may win back another $90 million.
• DOI recently uncovered thousands of fake job placements by Seedco, which the city pays $7 million a year to help the unemployed.
• When DOI finishes its review, Future Technology Associates may have to return $9 million of its DOE financial services contract.

In pressing for federal inquiries into city contracting, we had tremendous help from AFSCME, our 1.6 million-member national union. Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders came through for our members by arranging a meeting in Washington where David Moog of our Research Dept., Associate Directors Henry Garrido and Oliver Gray and I shared information we had uncovered with top officials of the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Depts. of Justice, Labor and Homeland Security. Soon after that, the investigations went into high gear.

The half-billion-dollar CityTime settlement gives the city a rare second chance to right the wrongs it did by contracting out. With totally inadequate oversight by the Bloomberg administration, the project sucked up hundreds of millions of dollars of the taxpayers' money as its cost zoomed from $63 million to over $700 million. The gigantic fraud expanded budget shortfalls that deprived communities of services and led to layoffs of 2,500 city workers since 2010.

Last November, as the investigation progressed, I wrote a letter to the mayor, urging him to "restore services to New Yorkers and jobs to laid-off employees" with any money returned to the city.

This $500 million is the public's money. I am serving notice on the mayor and the City Council that the moral choice in this time of high unemployment is to use the funds to repair the damage done by the overspending and corruption in contracting out. Make the communities our members serve whole by restoring services. Make our workforce whole by rehiring the laid-off workers and negotiating fair pay increases with DC 37.

When we press for wage increases, the mayor cries poverty and says it's up to us to find the money. Well, here's the money! Now let's get serious about using it for people's needs, instead of dissipating it in the "general fund."

This $500 million creates a wonderful opportunity for the city to stop squandering the people's money on crooked contract profiteers and make a new beginning.

As the economy improves and other investigations of contracting corruption bear fruit, there will be more money coming into the city treasury. I call on our elected leaders to join with the working people and communities of our city to use the money to meet human needs.