Facing growing public outrage following a 25 Investigates report, state transportation officials have broken their silence, granting an on-camera interview after initially providing only a written response.
The pivot came just 16 hours after a widely viewed expose detailed how top-earning MassDOT highway maintenance workers have been billing taxpayers for overtime hours that did not appear to add up.
“It’s outrageous,” MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver told Investigative Reporter Ted Daniel. “These are tax dollars. This is public trust that we have with these guys,” he said.
Gulliver’s comments echo the fierce public backlash seen across social media since the report first aired Tuesday during the Boston 25 News at 6:00pm.
Watching from a parking garage overlooking a District Six maintenance facility in Charlestown, 25 Investigates logged the vehicle departure times of several high-earning highway maintenance workers and compared them directly to legally binding timesheets over the course of 7 months.
The recorded surveillance exposed what appears to be a systemic pattern of payroll inflation. Several workers routinely submitted timecards claiming 16-hour shifts including full eight-hour overtime shifts, paid at time-and-a-half, on days when hidden cameras captured their personal vehicles exiting the yard, hours before the overtime shifts ended.
None of the employees caught on camera were able to explain the discrepancies when confronted by 25 Investigates and one responded, “I have no comment,” when asked if he’s working the hours he’s claimed
According to agency records, the apparently inflated timecards were approved by management all the way up the chain of command at MassDOT.
When pressed on how blatant discrepancies could pass internal controls undetected, and why it required 25 Investigates to uncover this, Gulliver admitted to a systemic failure.
“There is very clearly a breakdown there that happened,” Gulliver said. “We don’t know where it happened yet. That’s part of why we’re going to go through that investigation.”
He added that the state has brought in an outside investigator to ensure a thorough, independent review. “My expectation is that we’re going to see that there was some supervision lapsing here, and whatever nature that took, we’re going to hold them accountable.”
The employee monitored by 25 Investigates with the lowest amount of extra hours still managed to make nearly $100,000 strictly in overtime last year.
Zachary Fuller, the state’s highest earning “Highway Maintenance Worker II” statewide raked in a total compensation package of $240,000, nearly triple his base salary with overtime.
Gulliver sought to distance the actions of the Charlestown cohort from the broader agency workforce, stating that he has already issued directives to supervisors across the state to strictly enforce overtime verification.
“In most cases, you follow most of our guys around, the only thing you’re going to get is tired. They work really hard,” Gulliver insisted. “And to have these guys be apparently cheating the system, again, it’s absolutely outrageous.”
Seven employees are currently on administrative leave while a MassDOT probe takes place.
MassDOT management has already begun conducting formal interviews with the specific workers featured in the 25 Investigates reports.
If an outside investigator uncovers definitive proof of intentional timecard falsification, Gulliver stated the department will explore criminal prosecution.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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