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OIG: Connecticut City Illegally Withdrew $110,000 From National Park Service Account

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Published Date

March 29, 2017

Officials in a Connecticut city illegally withdrew $110,000 from a National Park Service grant program and pled ignorance to the rules they were supposed to follow, according to an Interior Department investigation.

The money, from the Park Service's Save America's Treasures grant program, was to be used to restore the Sterling Opera House, which was built in 1889 and said to be the first structure in Connecticut to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

According to a report from Interior's Office of Inspector General, the town of Derby first withdrew $10,000 from the grant program "without any request for approval or supporting documentation. The second withdrawal was for $100,000 and allegedly occurred after Derby was explicitly told that its payment request had been disapproved."

"We confirmed that Derby officials improperly withdrew NPS funds totaling $110,000. A Derby official withdrew $10,000 from the grant without obtaining the required approval. Seven months later, Derby made a $150,000 withdrawal request, which NPS denied because the architectural design drawings did not comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties," an OIG overview of the incident read. "After being told that the request was disapproved, the same Derby official who withdrew the $10,000 circumvented the approval process and withdrew $100,000 without notifying NPS. We further discovered that Derby did not comply with several of the administrative grant conditions.

"When interviewed, the official and the official’s supervisor stated that they were unaware of the rules and proper procedures, and they could not provide an explanation for not complying with the grant provisions."

According to the investigation, however, Park Service personnel had "informed Derby through several communications and documents that it had to request approval before obtaining reimbursement from the grant."

Under a settlement reached January 31 with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the city agreed to repay the $110,000 in three installments by February 1, 2019.

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