State Senator Walter Kavanaugh

CORRUPTION STILL RAMPANT IN NEW JERSEY
ONGOING UMDNJ & SCC PROBES PROMISE INDICTMENTS

Senator Walter Kavanaugh, (R-16), a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee issued the following statement concerning the first one hundred days of the Corzine Administration and the ongoing probes of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the Schools Construction Corporation and the Abbott preschools program.
Senator Walter Kavanaugh, (R-16), a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee issued the following statement concerning the first one hundred days of the Corzine Administration and the ongoing probes of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the Schools Construction Corporation and the Abbott preschools program.

“The corruption in New Jersey has made our state a standing joke on late night television and the Governor has not done enough to address the issue. The corruption at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is generating new headlines every day and the excesses being reported in the press are shocking and the scandal at the Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) is quite simply the largest theft of public money in history. It is very likely that both of these outrageous episodes will lead to indictments by the United States Attorney in the very near future.

Now, in addition to the ongoing scandals occurring at the UMDNJ and the SCC, major irregularities in the Abbott pre-school program’s finances have been revealed. They include poor accounting practices, personal loans to some pre-school operators, bounced checks, suspect hotel bills and checks to a Jaguar dealership. Even the head of Newark’s early childhood education program, Gail Griffin, stated that ‘they had stolen the money.’

“Worse, the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, Peter Harvey, dismissed the cases. It seems that after the well publicized excesses of the previous administration we have just more of the same.

“After his first 100 days in office Governor Corzine and his Attorney General owe the public an explanation on the state of the investigations into these scandals to help restore the public’s faith in their elected officials.�