The latest audit of the Delaware Transportation Department is not good.
DelDOT Secretary Shailen Bhatt said that it turned up at least $161-thousand in uncashed developer checks with dozens of state land rights potentially in jeopardy because of fragmented and lax practices.
The six week probe was prompted by the Wilmington News Journal investigation into a land deal in Milford that has already led to reforms.
The paper reported that Bhatt said he was disappointed by the findings from the New York based BST accounting firm.
It noted that the workforce was over-reliant on unwritten guidance from senior managers and hampered by – what’s described as – disjointed, paper-intensive systems used to manage documents for major projects and millions of dollars in land transactions.
Reforms have already been implemented that range from a $1 million document and filing management system and a reorganization of the agency’s real estate section to an overhaul of – what has been termed – a chaotic administrative culture.
Bhatt took office in July of last year after the abrupt retirement of his predecessor Carolann Wicks. She left in the wake of criticism by the Governor’s staff in the handling of some land-lease deals with developers.
