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Piracy Setup Discovered in WV Capitol Building
arakis writes "Someone in West Virginia has apparently spent tens of thousands in state funds to acquire computers and video gear to copy movies and music. From the article: 'Ferguson confirmed Tuesday that his staff found the makeshift audio-video studio amid his widening probe into spending and other abuses at the state General Services Division.' Looks like some employees are getting the axe for everything from purchasing abuse to time fraud."
What a great phrase! Makes me nostalgic for Doctor Who...
Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
14GB of MP3s? I'd bet that one in three Slashdotters has at least that much. Anyone know what the "crack the headers" bit refers to for CDs?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
so the question is will the MPAA and RIAA go after the state government? Will the state turn the individuals responsible over to these private companies.
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
We know that the MPAA has claimed that buying pirated movies supports terrorism.
Therefore, these proud patroits in West Virginia (death to all tyrants!) were simply providing a means for Americans to purchase pirated movies without supporting Al Queada (or however they spell thier name). After all, we've learned that breaking the law is perfectly legal as long as you put the words "fighting the war on terrorism" in front of it.
Now, if we can just get them to take care of that whole "get money from oil revenues to finance terrorism" thing, and we've got it licked!
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
You think they would have figured out how to get the equipment off-site.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
"Capitol Records"
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
Trolling is a art,
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Line 3 needs more cowbell.
Beat 'Em and Eat 'Em
Pff... That's not a audio/video studio... that's just a guy downloading and burning some DivX movies.
I think "tens of thousands in state funds" is possibly a bit of an exaggeration.
Kayamon
This suffice it to say reinforces the image of public sector workers abusing their state privaliges. I remember an interview with Wanda Sykes where she talked about her other job at her job while working at the state. I am a very strong supporter of teh privitization of many Government agencies. I'm sick and tired of seeing my tax dollars being wasted by over payed gum chewing counter people who have no clue.
1. Take one college educated idiot (Usually a MBA)
2. Place in charge of a group of geeks who actually know their jobs
3. Pay Fines!
his staff found the makeshift audio-video studio amid his widening probe into spending and other abuses at the state General Services Division.
Look on the bright side, maybe the person(s) behind the purchases were filming some amateur porn and the state can sue their earnings to recoup some extra cash.
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
was it rated arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr? (pirate joke, lol)
What the heck are "header codes?"
Was it gigabytes of "Take Me Home Country Roads" on mp3 and the movie "Deliverence"?
government is corrupt. Is this news?
"As we continue to peel back the onion, every time we turn a corner we find something else that doesn't look right," Ferguson said.
And I remember when covertly distilling Moonshine was a problem!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
From the article: "...one hard drive contained approximately 40 full-length motion videos..."
As opposed to what? Videos of still images? Someone sitting there with a photo album and a camcorder, I guess...goes to show you what people will do when they don't have a scanner...
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
Sure, there are potential copyright violations (which are not necessarily crimes).
But theft of resources is troubling. Remember the folks who set up rc5 cracking clients, or seti@home clients on government computers? Not good.
Ferguson recently fired two division staffers, Gary McClanahan and Gary Bryant, after they claimed they had worked 18-hour days 119 times over the course of 2 1/2 years. Ferguson said a $466, 24-inch flat-screen computer monitor was found in Bryant's office but that no evidence suggests either man orchestrated the computer purchases.
Sometimes, an 18hour work day is exactly that.
Some places allow practically all the overtime you can log - simply because its cheaper to let you work greater hours than to hire/train somebody up to your role.
Firing them because they were hard workers is wrong.
Firing them because they made fraudulant claims is right.
(they do sound like the BOFH and PFY though don't they)
liqbase
"As we continue to peel back the onion, every time we turn a corner we find something else that doesn't look right," Ferguson said.
I didn't know onions had corners. But you can bet that onions with corners wouldn't look right.
On another note, hahahahahahaha. Awesome.^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H--I mean...how awful.
Only 40 movies and 3,500 mp3s?
Whatcha wanna bet that the gear that hasn't been located yet has a lot more? And a nice CD and DVD archive nearby?
The government always over spends. The whole operation could be done much cheaper. Most readers on /. probably have the equipment to rip and burn cd/DVDs and have not spent as much as they claim to have spent.
But maybe they are using numbers provided by RIAA or MPAA. Those always seem to be inflated.
Are we back into the days of yellow journalism here?
tens of thousands in "piracy equipment"? "computers and video gear"?!
last time i checked my 3 towers and 9 hard disks didn't cost tens of thousands (and two of them are macs!)
piracy setup? come on now! a tower with dvd decryptor and a couple hundred gigs of avis and mp3's is now a vast piracy setup. that's funny. If this is the headline for such a pitifully small collection, i wander if the headline for the arrest of someone on my res hall would read "international organized piracy syndicate taken down".
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I think that this case underscores how little government bureaucrats understand about the technology being used in their own buildings right under their very noses. Far too often when someone tries to bring a technical matter to the attention of someone with the authority to do something about it, they get The Hand in the Face... 'uhp, uhp, uhp, I don't want to hear about it... if it's not about a massive campaign contribution I don't want to know.' Well, when the suits from the media companies come knocking, well, The Hand in the Face tactic isn't going to work.
This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
The RIAA's argument is that a computer owner should know what their children or other users are doing with their computers and are thus responsible for any piracy that occurs using said computer. By this same logic the RIAA could sue the State of West Virginaia, but of course, the RIAA wouldn't do that. They only go after individuals.
http://www.stockmarketgarden.com/
Ask anyone in tech support who has had to work in a bloated bureaucratic building overpopulated with secretaries. My favorite encounter was cleaning a couple thousand pieces of spyware off some secretary's computer. While I was doing that, she and another secretary were copying DVD movies on their computers, as well as their boss's computer. Apparently the boss was gone for the day. So basically, I was helping her burn DVDs faster.
Thank you Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
""Someone in West Virginia has apparently spent tens of thousands in state funds to acquire computers and video gear to copy movies and music. "
Didn't slashdot have a story awhile back were the majority of the public felt it was OK to copy movies and music? So why should we be surprised that we found a group of people willing to put words into action? Yes they used taxpayer money, but then if someone isn't going to respect the laws concerning copyright, why should we be surprised that they don't respect the laws concerning taxpayer money?
--
The "are you a script" root word of stewardship for today is "steward".
From TFA: "Not all the purchased computers and gear can be located, Ferguson said."
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
They have computers in West Virginia?
This is the least significant warez case I have about heard in years. Even ten times that still isn't much warez. How did this minor case become a slashdot headline?
Is it possible that most of that $88K went to legit computer purchases? 40 movies, 3,500 MP3s, and oh-so-common DeCSS software is all easily fit into one normal PC. And hundreds of blank DVDs/CDs isn't all that much - it's $100 worth of merchandise found on newegg. Sure, this guy was copying movies, but wouldn't bet that this is one of those "zero patient" cases.
egregious spelling, I'm thinking you're just jealous they passed the civil service exam.
Heh, who knows how many of those equipments are infected by Sony's rootkit...
--MaxPowerDJ
There's a reason why those of us up north refer to the capital as 'Planet Charleston'. This just reinforces the notion.
That's not saying the papers like the Dominion-Post are any better. I buy the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette myself.
It's one thing to use company time to run your underground piracy scheme, but to budget that sum of money to do it is beyond bold! And what of this Ferguson character? "As we continue to peel back the onion, every time we turn a corner we find something else that doesn't look right," Well duh, how long have YOU been letting this go on? It blows my mind that people in charge can be so removed from what's going on...
renaming..or filling out the ID3 tags
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
I'm not sure why they needed $88K in computer equipment to copy 40 f'ing movies and 3500mp3's.... i could have got all that ++ for what ... $2K or less... I have encoded all my cd's to mp3 and I have way more than 3500 songs on my computer right now....
typical goverment employees, paying crazy high prices to accomplish something anyone off the street could accomplish for a fraction.... even when committing crimes.
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
"As we continue to peel back the onion, every time we turn a corner we find something else that doesn't look right," Ferguson said.
The scary part is that their onions have corners.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
I'll bet a couple of nerds in WV are shitting themselves right now.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Well, what are they getting axed?
How many Slashdotters actually know what the capital of West Virginia is without having to look it up?
...I have heard in a long time!
The real issue here is not that someone had 14GB of mp3s or 40 movies; that simply makes for a better headline. The real issue is that someone in the capital was abusing the purchasing system and bilking the state for all they could. Buying barebones PCs on one purchase and then purchasing the remaining components on a separate order is a big no-no. It means that the PCs appear to be far less expensive, and exempts them from inventory control systems. The purchases basically fly under the radar, and the goods could be anywhere now; some other office, somebody's house, or sold on eBay.
Currently, the government is in the *AA's back pocket. Why sue an ally?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
This might be the same place that was caught in a cable theft scandal recently - a bunch of tv's hooked up to one service account. Anyway - it must come with the territory - about an hour south of the WV Capital is this guy.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Shouldn't government start getting the message soon what it's people REALLY think about this whole "piracy" issue? We are too complacent anymore! We had better wake up collectively and become more pro-active or it will be 1984 sooner than you think!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
a tower with dvd decryptor and a couple hundred gigs of avis and mp3's is now a vast piracy setup. that's funny.
You've never actually been on a drive through West Virginia, have you? Mind you, it's beautiful (the part that isn't up on blocks). For a state that's got a lot of territory just a short drive from the nation's capital, it's a funny mix of demographics. But yes, a rig set up (however modestly) to crank out physical copies of pirated media probably is a big deal to a lot of the locals.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
There is an IHOP in Gastonia, NC that is located on Cox Road. Urban legend has is that they used to answer the phone "IHOP on Cox". Say it out loud for the full effect.
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
/. should know better than to use the word "piracy". It is a demonisation term.
I'll bet a couple of nerds in WV are shitting themselves right now.
Think you mean "both of the nerds in WV." Sometimes there are three, though (for less than an hour), depending on if I'm driving through on my way from the skinny part of Maryland south on 81.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Now that's what I want my tax dollars to pay for! I'm serious!! Really!!!
I kill harmless processes for sport
When did West Virginia get computers?
It is good to see that all that bribe money of RIAA/MPAA is put to good use.
What power has law where only money rules.
I'm a geek with an MBA! What the Fuck do I do! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
How many slashdotters other than me are actually from West Virginia? (Notice that I have to post as AC in order to hide from the WV jokes.)
The capital of West Virigina? Probably about $25...
Nephilium
According to the Smoking Gun, bootlegging is still a problem, though it's more of a Virginia thing.
1 .html
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1007052still
This suffice it to say reinforces the image of public sector workers abusing their state privaliges.
;)
This coming from someone who is likely "abusing" their internet privilges during work hours
Many, many moons ago when the commercial side of the internet was still in it's infancy we managed to convince our company that we needed to get "one of them thar internet things" and get us wired up. It was pretty awesome at the time (full T1 back then, woot!) and our main tools were usenet and gopher (aahh, brings back memories). Anyway, one of the IT guys ended up running a rather large warez and pron site on our server (large Unix based (AIX IIRC)). You might be pissed because they're spending "your" money, but the fact is that in the end it happens everywhere (public and private) and we all end up paying for it (decreased productivity == increased prices, etc).
{jesting}"I have access to almost unlimited funds through a closed-source purchasing system. I have identified a number of holes in the system that would allow me to syphon off funds to purchase a "pirate studio" and install it in the basement of the capitol building. Since I'd rather not pay the Microsoft tax, could you recommend a "free" (as in beer) solution for my embezzlement?"
Shiver me timbers!!! They've caught Peg-Leg Pete, the most famous pirate on the Appalacian Main!!!
Blow the man down!
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
I am a government employee. (work at a small college). Had a broken Digital Projector. Called them up, described the problem, was told that $PART was broken, and it would be $2400 to fix. I kind of went silent for a few minutes, and pointed out that their new projectors of the same Lumens cost $1500. Do customers really do this? His response was that sometimes, especially with government accounts, there is no budget for new equipment, but money in the repair budget. I remember saying, "So instead of spending $1500 on a new projector with a warranty, they spend $2400 on repairing a 3 year old projector? Don't you feel good about where your tax dollars are going?" I have seen this far too many times in government. Rules are so strict and rigid (often because of abuses) that it is easier to spend twice as much money than to get approval to move the amount from one budget account to another..
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
you oughta change that script once in awhile
Accurate accounting.
Equipment includes Shipping, cost of someone to recieves the goods, cost of set up, bandwidth used, etc. . .
Plus if he got any non-standard equipment.
So 10Gs is probably a good estimate of real costs.
Accounts for the government are the most accurate and anal I have ever had the pleasure of working with.
Much more accurate then any Corp I have worked with.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
... and my family tree does too branch, thankyouverymuch.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
Once we needed to upgrade an AS/400. Heck, we needed a NEW AS/400 but did not have money in the budget for a new machine although we did have upgrade money in the budget. IBM gave us a proposal to "upgrade" our AS/400. Basically, we would get a new machine but keep the old machine's serial number.
;-)
I cannot remember if the prices were skewed higher or not. I believe we still received discounted pricing. This was a not a government agency though.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
"...makeshift audio-video studio..."
*kick drum/splash*
Should be a good severance pay, everybody knows those are worth 25K.
If you spend tens of thousands of dollars you're a pretty crappy pirate. I thought the point of piracy was not spending money.
Huh? Oh.... they were copying and selling pirated movies. Nevermind.
"items discovered in the basement office. Not all the purchased computers and gear can be located, Ferguson said."
So it could be done with one computer, but this person(s) had more then one system.
Dollar to donuts they got away with the first purchase...just enough to rationalize as a mistake if they got caught, and then got greedy. Oreder lots of addons and low end PCs. You can get to 88K really fast.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
My boss bought himself a 30-inch monitor (for way more than $466), but he's salaried. Should I tell him to be careful? ;)
"Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!"
40 Movies and 14 Gigs of Mp3s? You would almost need a WHOLE ipod Video just to hold all that stuff! And what IT worker has 14 gigs at his disposal?
Sheesh, next he'll want more than 640KB of RAM.
Hundreds of blank DVD's? Oh wow, that's absolutely insane, considering they only sell them in spools of 50-100. I mean, i wouldn't even know where to put 2 or 3 WHOLE spools of DVD'rs, let alone hide them from satellite imagery.
Being landlocked, I doubt W.VA has a pirate problem to speak of.0 31203a.htm)e .htm?site=http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives /2002/stories/piracy%2520report%2520Oct2002.asp)e .htm?site=http://www.iccwbo.org/ccs/imb_piracy/wee kly_piracy_report.asp)
Now, here is some info on REAL pirates and piracy:
"Modern Pirates Thrive on Global Trade" (http://globalization.about.com/library/weekly/aa
"Pirate attacks against ships increase, ICC report finds" (http://globalization.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsit
and last but not least:
"Weekly Piracy Report" (http://globalization.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsit
Now, enough FUD about piracy!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
I'm originally from Charleston, thank you very much. I was just there over the weekend as a matter of fact.
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
hehe.. I want to know where to get a 24in widescreen for less than 500.00 wtf am I missing? :D
Inane Comments are Generously Disregarded
It's a big scam.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
Exactly which of these agencies are you willing to privatize? Do you even realize that privatization means that *you must pay for it*? When the government does it, it's taxed. That means everyone pays a little for each service, whether they use it or not.
That means toll roads. And pricy, because those interstates aren't going to be getting money from the people who don't like to drive on them anymore. There will be no more children's services because the children don't pay for them, so no complaining when you find out your neighbor's been beating his kids for years and nobody's done anything about it--there's no foster homes to put them in. No more social security programs because no insurance business would be willing to put bets on whether someone's going to live long enough to retire, with our lifespans extending every year. Turn law enforcement over to the private security forms exclusively and crime will skyrocket because the most vulnerable can't pay for safety.
It's all well and good to go around spouting that privatization is the solution to everything, but it'd be nice if you had some evidence that was the case.
"As we continue to peel back the onion, every time we turn a corner we find something else that doesn't look right," Ferguson said.
Like an extremely bad metaphor?
Maybe it a new source of revenue for the state. The states must find new ways make sure no child is left behind. The next time you are at the local flea market and see a table of CDs and DVDs, buy one and help a child out.
Was waiting to use that for ...uh, a few hours now.
Spending 20.000+ usd worth of equipment to copy some movies and mp3's??? The guy must have been a complete moron, you can do that with a 1000 dollar machine without problems.
lets see they found the pirate set up...what about the moonshine and incest setups down the hall?
when you buy stuff like that from company funds your soposed to sneak it out and take it home... dummies.
*******:~> cd media/video/movies/ ../../audio
*******:~/media/video/movies> du -csh
52G .
52G total
*******:~/media/video/movies> cd
*******:~/media/audio> du -csh
6.9G .
6.9G total
Does this mean I am bad?
I know for a fact that the Kansas Highway Patrol office in Butler County uses the AV equipment to copy movies. Does anybody care? No.
I didn't even know they had computers in West virginia, much less know how to use them.......
The RIAA only goes after individuals who they can steamroll into paying settlements. I think that if they tried to sue a state government, they might come up against a real barrier, and thus legal precedent.
A state gov't is a big leap from a single mom or a grandmother...
$10 Now that there movie distribution business is shut down.
That's the time part. Ferguson said a $466, 24-inch flat-screen computer monitor was found in Bryant's office
This prooves there's no fraud, working on such acreage takes above average time!
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
I think we should be asking:
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
...they're ordering computers.
*Never use facts pulled out of thin air.
... Are all of the IT entitlements going away?
I, for one, welcome our dvd-pirating masters:
1) Tax payer dollars
2) Government-run piracy lab
3) ???
4) Profit!
Procrastination Man strikes again!
"Specifically, one hard drive contained approximately 40 full-length motion videos," state Chief Technology Officer Kyle Schafer said in the Jan. 5 memo to Administration Secretary Robert Ferguson. "Two other hard drives contained over 3,500 MP3 music files consuming more than 14 [gigabytes] of hard drive space."
That sounds more like my iPod than a big time piracy operation.
Still, I hope they fire them all.
--fatboy
The Capitol pirates YOU!
3. Can they marry their cousins?
I assume you want to move there so your marriage will be legal?
bum-ba-bum-ba-da-bum!
--- This
Remember "Full Motion Video" in the 90s being a buzzword? Maybe that's what they were pirating, thousands of copies of TIE Fighter.
They just did inventory at my friend's job, and every computer is listed as $750, while every screen is $250. This is regardless of the age or condition of the item. Maybe that is partially why the dollar ammount is so high.
Per Person in W.V. per one year in tax.
I'm more worry about US Gov't pumping 70+ billion into God knows where the fuck they are spending on. Fire those bastards who keep delaying body armor for our troops in Iraq and trailers for huriane Katrina victims.
Oh yeah, I'm glad the asshole in W.V. staff with 24" flat screen is fired. That's totally absurd spending when we all know, no Gov't employee need 24" screen to work in a fucking terminal all day.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
A couple years ago one of the tech support for CWRU noticed that President Hundert's new computer's hard drive was nearly full. It turned out that he had unknowingly turned his computer into a host for XBox images.
Looks like some employees are getting the axe for everything from purchasing abuse to time fraud.
Hi, I'd like to buy an argument please.
Why do so many of you feel the need to insult West Virginia? The majority of you have never even been here. You know nothing about us.
I'd fire your ass for making important personnel decisions based on your personal prejudices without bothering to get all the facts.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I actually know programmers who benefit from having numerous screen windows open, and help desk workers who may have dozens open if they have the screen real estate. A 24" screen is not unreasonable for that sort of work. And the less than $500 price tag is not surprising for a big customer's discounts, such as a state agency, or for a refurbished monitor.
$500 is often a threshold price for purchase orders: more than that makes people think harder, or have to get the purchase approved, so I'm not surprised if one company makes screens like that. Pricewatch shows several vendors with 24" screens that might fit that description.
I suspect that other people in the office knew exactly what was going on with those computers. I bet it would be safe to say that many of the people in or near that office acquired many copies of music and movies from the computers in question. Many people still think that making copies is okay as long as you don't sell it.
Having worked in corporate America for many years, let me assure you that such spending abuses are quite common there, too.
Cap company employee count.
10 kiloperson companies are asking for trouble.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
>>> There are two capitals in West Virginia: "W" and "V".
ah yes, capitols.
I helped My Uncle Jack off a horse.
I helped My Uncle jack off a horse.
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
They are thrifty for government work, too--about $1.4 million per pound.
The state may not have much else, but they do have lots of wireless broadband. I've backpacked through the state and it's incredible to be in the middle of nowhere and pull out a PDA or laptop and sit on a rock on a mountaintop and link in to the megabits from the town's public broadband system. National Public Radio did a story about it around Christmas, several months after I had been there.
I heard the story and even called that group to find out more technical information about their setup. Impressive stuff indeed. West Virginia Broadband is the organization that developed the wireless network in WV. I even called the Zenon Pawlowski guy interviewed by Melissa Block in the story. He sells very efficient wood boilers imported from europe, so I was very surprised to find such sophisticated technology and smart people in West Virginia. I can't even get broadband and I live 5 minutes away from South Bend, Indiana.
Perchance was that the reason that I was modded down ? Perhaps it could say 'that mean Mean Bush'???\\
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
What blows my mind is that I can't find a single WV joke in your replies.
;)
They should let the guys off with no charges since they actually figured out how to use computers in WV. They took time away from inbreeding
http://67.39.100.122/alerts_nycu/weekly_updates/12 1605/Weekly%20Subscription.htm#%22Harvard%20Spent% 20$3.52%20Million%20on%20Lobbying%20Since%201998%2 2
"Asbestos Contracts Rigged?"
West Virginia - Charleston Gazette - Published on: 12/12/2005
Issued: December 16, 2005
Employees at the West Virginia Division of General Services might have rigged bids to benefit two asbestos-removal companies, including one owned by former Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Roger Pritt, according to a legislative audit. General Services personnel split large jobs into several small contracts, apparently to evade competitive-bidding procedures, said auditors. This year, 27 of 32 asbestos-removal contracts went to Pritt's company, Astar Abatement.
West Virginia Secretary of Administration Robert Ferguson said he discovered the questionable contracts earlier this year and asked the legislative auditor's office to investigate. Ferguson said he discovered other problems, such as rampant abuse of overtime. One state employee received up to 10 hours of overtime a day to oversee asbestos work, said Ferguson. "... I don't think it's humanly possible to work 18 hours a day for years at a time," said Ferguson. He said he could not be sure the asbestos actually was removed, as promised.
Pritt is the brother of Charlotte Pritt, a former state senator who defeated Gov. Joe Manchin in the 1996 Democratic gubernatorial primary and then lost the general election to former Gov. Cecil Underwood. Between 2001 and 2003, Roger Pritt served as commissioner of motor vehicles under Gov. Bob Wise. He quit to mount an unsuccessful campaign to become secretary of state. Since 1995, Astar Abatement has received more than $1.5 million from different state agencies, colleges, and universities. More than $1.3 million was paid after Wise took office in 2001, according to the state auditor's Web site.
Roger Pritt's Division of Motor Vehicles had its headquarters in Building 3, which the audit focused on as an example of the alleged waste and bid rigging. In Building 3, what should have been one asbestos-removal project was split into nine separate contracts, the audit says, one for each heating and air-conditioning unit in the basement. The units were only a few feet from one another. Each contract was worth slightly less than $10,000, the limit that would have triggered statewide competitive bidding. Instead, the agency's health and safety manager, Gary Bryant, asked for bids from three companies, as is allowed for smaller contracts. Astar Abatement won all nine of the Building 3 contracts, worth more than $79,000.
In the past two years, Astar Abatement received 30 of 55 asbestos contracts from General Services. Master Mechanical Insulation received all but two of the rest of the contracts. According to the audit, General Services personnel split large contracts into smaller ones to avoid purchasing rules on several occasions, not just in the Building 3 contract. Bryant's supervisor, Acting General Services Director Jim Burgess, told auditors he questioned the Building 3 contracts, but deferred to Bryant. Burgess approved at least one contract where Astar was not the lowest bidder, according to the audit.
General Services staff members granted numerous "supplemental contracts" to companies, adding extra cost onto their work after the bid was awarded. For example, Astar Abatement received about $8,000 in supplemental contracts for its work in Building 3. In addition, the audit suggests some bids might have been rigged. Nineteen of the asbestos contracts were awarded for slightly less than $10,000. In 10 of those cases, one company bid just under $10,000, while the other two bid between $2,000 and $6,500 more. Neither the auditors nor Ferguson would say why General Serv
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
OK, the job title he had was "Health and Safety manager." for the General Service division. 24" is a lot of realestate even for his job. Either he sucked some good dick to rationalize 24" monitor to his supervisor or 17" CRT/LCD monitor costing tax payer fraction of that 24" monitor probably wasn't "good enough" to monitor the Health and Safety of General Service division, so he rigged it along with other jobs he's been rigging.
The point is, it doesn't matter how "cheap" he got the 24" monitor. The question is why and justifiable reasoning behind authorizing "Health and Safety manager" the 24" monitor. I would care less if he got it for 300 bucks (What a Deal!). His job isn't to stare at monitor all day like developers, operation or system control unit managers and engineers.
No, Really. C'mon! Are they running a State or Corporate Executives' Club for good old boys?
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
N/T
Wow - that's some pretty cool time compression to fit 17 years of jokes into 11!
Or did you just really *not* want to come out of the womb? ;-)
Um ... I would guess that he's 28 and has spent the last 17 years of life in Florida hearing jokes about West Virginians. Or did you imagine that in West Virginia, they all sit around telling jokes about themselves?
"captainmode" = "off"
Human being (n.): A genetically human, genetically distinct, functioning organism.
"The movie Deliverance was filmed in Georgia and took place there as well. Get your facts straight."
Most of it was filmed on the Chattooga (great rafting) which is in NC, SC and Georgia. The guides on the river showed us some of the more prominent spots.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
What amazes me about all this, is that the white house was found to have at least one treasoner (libby, with more coming) and he quit (with GWB saying that he is innocent until proven guilty, ignoring that he said that he would fire the person), but in WV, ppl are being fired by being connected with piracy (but possibly not directly connected).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I have. It's as redneck as people think it is.... no offense. :|