Add the Chicago Park District to the list of government agencies with employees accused of defrauding federal COVID-19 relief programs.
In a new report, the park district’s internal investigators say they dug into more than two dozen cases in an ongoing probe that’s prompted six employees to resign, with five other workers also facing discipline.
At the park district, investigators have looked into 26 current or seasonal employees who got PPP loans for "purported secondary, private businesses," according to the new report from the agency’s interim inspector general, Alison Perona. Her investigation began after an anonymous complaint to the inspector general’s hotline. The report detailed the 26 cases that have been investigated, offering these details:
Six employees showed proof they had businesses that received the PPP funds, but they had not received the required permission from the park district to have those side gigs. They were reprimanded. The park district’s leadership changed and sweeping reforms were promised in 2021, after WBEZ reported on widespread sexual abuse, assault and harassment involving lifeguards at Chicago’s beaches and city pools.
Witzburg said her office is investigating complaints from tipsters and doing its own "proactive analysis" of the city payroll to ferret out fraud.
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