Bloomberg: CityTime Crooks "Slipped Through The Cracks"

Wow - the Mayor of Accountability loves to hold others accountable, but himself - not so much:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says payroll consultants accused of stealing $80 million from the city were allegedly able to do so because they simply slipped through the cracks.

Four city consultants were charged with defrauding the city. They had been working on a project to consolidate the city’s payroll and timekeeping records. The wife and mother of one consultant were also charged.

Lawyers for all but one say their clients are innocent. The other has declined comment.

Bloomberg said Friday on his weekly radio show that the alleged fraud should have been detected earlier. But he said the city can’t investigate everything at all times.

He said this project involved many layers of contracts, which can be difficult to police.

He declared the city is still relatively free of corruption and crime.

The crooks "simply slipped through the cracks"?

The city can't investigate everything at all times?

There were many layers of contracts in this project, and that can be difficult to police?

What the hell is he talking about?

The project was supposed to be completed ten years ago.

It is almost $700 million over budget.

Juan Gonzalez at the Daily News first published about the CityTime project abuses back in December of 2009.

That was twelve months ago.

Leticia James held hearings about the project that same month.

And City Controller John Liu argued back in June with Bloomberg over whether the CityTime crooks should get a contract extension.

Bloomberg said they should, Liu said they shouldn't - not without some accountability measures that would force them to finally finish the project.

Somehow the Mayor of Accountability managed to miss all these warning signs.

These crooks didn't slip through the cracks.

They were stealing in broad daylight, the press was writing about it, a City Council member was warning about it and the City Controller was recommending the city stop doing business with them.

But Bloomberg ignored ALL the warning signs.

And now he wants to play the victim and pass the blame onto somebody else.

As for the city can't investigate everything at all times - nobody's asking you to do that.

We're simply saying when you see crooks stealing money in broad daylight, you should stop them.

That's all.

But you were too busy "holding teachers accountable," insinuating that the lazy bastards were lying down on the job and not teaching to actually do something about real actual crooks whowere stealing $80 million dollars from the city coffers.

Yeah - $80 million dollars.

I said it earlier, I will say it again - there needs to be an investigation of how this mayor handled this CityTime contract, particularly after the Juan Gonzalez articles were first published about the mess back in January.

And then there needs to be an investigation into how the city conducts its contracts, hires consultants, etc.

The mayor NEEDS to take some responsibility for this scandal.

He was in charge.

He was asleep at the wheel.

$80 million is missing.

And as Lillian Roberts of DC 37 charged yesterday, with the way the city runs its contracting business, the CityTime scandal is only the tip of the iceberg.

Stop running for president, Mayor Accountability, and pay attention the job you broke the law to remain in.