‘Outrageous’: Open government group blasts Carney officials’ plan to limit embezzlement probe report to top lawmakers

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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Delaware Director of Finance Rick Geisenberger said his department and the Department of Labor still plan to fulfill their promise to update state lawmakers this month on their investigation into a former DOL employee’s theft of taxpayer funds.

To make good on that vow, the agencies must submit their report to the General Assembly within the next week.

WHYY News reported exclusively in May that former unemployment insurance administrator Michael Brittingham stole about $181,000 from the unemployment insurance trust fund last year. He took his own life in April 2023 shortly after he was told he was under investigation.

Lawmakers received letters in June from the DOL, the finance department and the auditor of accounts promising to give lawmakers an accounting of the embezzlement last month. Those letters came after groups like the Delaware Coalition for Open Government (DelCOG) began calling for investigations and hearings into what happened and why it was not made public until it was uncovered in WHYY News’ reporting. WHYY News obtained a copy of the letters, which were not made public by the agencies themselves.

DELCOG spokesperson John Flaherty said the group was planning to ask the U.S. Department of Labor to get involved because of the lack of transparency by Gov. John Carney’s administration about the theft.

“We have a known embezzlement of state funds from a fund that is so screwed up that the auditor says they can’t even audit that fund,” Flaherty said. “There’s a deep abiding interest in the public and making sure that the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is being operated in the public good.”

In the June letters to lawmakers, DOL Secretary Karryl Hubbard and Geisenberger argued that not disclosing embezzlement of taxpayer funds was the right move while acknowledging state lawmakers’ supervisory role.

“We fully understand the General Assembly’s important oversight responsibilities,” the administration leaders said. “We are committed to ensuring that you and your colleagues have accurate information and access to a full accounting of findings and actions to date and our recommended path forward.”

Hubbard and Geisenberger promised the General Assembly it would get “a full accounting of findings and actions to date and our recommended path forward.”

However, Geisenberger told WHYY News the report would only go to the legislative leadership, which consists of five Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and five in the House. He did not respond to a question about why it would not go to all lawmakers if he and Hubbard were committed to making sure all lawmakers had accurate information.

Flaherty said the Carney administration doesn’t get to decide who is entitled to information about the theft of taxpayer funds.

“Members of the Executive Cabinet — the Division of Accounting, Department of Labor — for them to say we’re going to pick and choose who gets to read a public document is outrageous,” he said. “This is a public document, about an incident that affected the public and everybody has the right to observe and monitor the actions of our public officials. That’s in the law.”

State Rep. Cyndie Romer, D-Newark, said she believes all legislators and the public should receive a copy of the expected report.

“I don’t understand why the whole General Assembly wouldn’t have access to that information,” she said. “With the understanding that some information may be redacted to protect privacy, I don’t see why the General Assembly shouldn’t have access to this report.”

Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Valerie Longhurst and Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola, said in June that they would read the July report before evaluating whether more action was needed. Majority Leader Sen. Bryan Townsend said he would distribute the report to his fellow senators and make sure it is available to the public.

The auditor of accounts also sent a letter last month to lawmakers saying she would give them a formal report after her investigation into the embezzlement had concluded. Her spokesperson would not clarify whether she was referring to the July report promised by DOL and DOF or a separate report.

Minority Leader Mike Ramone said he would support a task force that would look at the embezzlement by Brittingham to see what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

“My concern is that the voters, the taxpayers, looking at this … it shakes confidence,” he said. “We should be looking into it, that’s our job. If we look in and find more, we don’t not look so we don’t find more, we look into it [to] see if there is more. If it’s there, we expose it and we create barriers so it can’t happen again.”

Flaherty said DELCOG was planning to request the inspector general at the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate Brittingham’s embezzlement of the trust fund because he said he lacked confidence that the state agencies could do the job.

Legislation sponsored by Sen. Laura Sturgeon, a Democrat from northern Delaware, would have created a state inspector general’s office, which would have been charged with investigating state agencies and the General Assembly. The inspector general would look specifically at allegations of waste, fraud, abuse or corruption. However, the bill stalled in committee.