RMV records scandal transcripts: Responsibility lies with Baker, lawmaker says

Newly released interview transcripts from the investigation into the RMV records scandal strengthened a conviction among lawmakers that the responsibility ultimately lies at the top.

“It clearly goes to the governor’s office and to some degree the secretary picks up on that by ceding, in essence, to her superiors,” Transportation Committee Chair William Straus told the Herald. “How can you profess surprise when the consequences of those early fundamental decisions result in the kind of tragedy we saw?”

Nearly 300 pages were released by the Department of Transportation on Wednesday from Grant Thornton’s investigation into the Registry’s deadly failure to keep up with license records. Interviews with employees from divisions within the MassDOT and the RMV as well as contractors, vendors and auditors, reveal a plethora of detail on how the Registry was being “mismanaged,” according to Straus.

Straus called on Gov. Charlie Baker to release Grant Thornton’s 41 interviews, conducted “at public expense,” over a month ago.

The chairman, who is leading his own legislative investigation into the matter, expressed concerns over the emphasis the administration placed on customer service and suggested it resulted in the agency’s neglect of important public safety functions. He referenced interviews in which workers indicated customer service was overstaffed, while the Merit Rating Board, the obscure RMV division last tasked with processing out-of-state license suspensions, requested more personnel.

“These are largely very dedicated people,” Straus said of the employees. “You begin to realize when you look at these hundreds and hundreds of pages that they really don’t have job descriptions or clear characterizations as to what individual departments or individual positions are supposed to do. That’s not the staff’s fault.”

MassDOT spokeswoman Jacque Goddard countered that existing resources were not diverted away from specific departments in order to staff customer service centers. She noted that the headcount at the board has remained consistent over the last several years, between 55 and 60 full time employees.

“As reflected in these notes, the firm interviewed employees from the Registry, MassDOT and the Governor’s office and concluded that employees neglected out-of-state records for several years,” Goddard said.

Baker and Pollack hired Grant Thornton in June as the scandal of deadly incompetence at the Registry emerged after the death of seven motorcyclists in a fiery June crash in New Hampshire. The administration admitted the RMV had failed to suspend the license of trucker Volodymyr Zhukovskyy after a Connecticut OUI charge. He was behind the wheel of a commercial truck that collided with the motorcyclists.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2XSItgN