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The Department of Education is under pressure to tighten its supervision of outside workers after another investigation found that consultants from IBM stole from the city while assigned to a technology project at the department.

Three IBM contractors working in one part of the department’s instructional technology division conducted personal business from the office, illicitly worked from home, and even stole and sold department equipment on eBay, according to a report released today by Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon.

Department officials who were supposed to be monitoring the contractors did not do their job, investigators concluded.

“The Chancellor must insist upon direct supervision of outside consultants by DOE employees,” Condon writes in the report. “Allowing outside consultants to usurp the supervisory role of DOE employees is an open invitation to defraud the DOE.”

In a twist, Condon’s report notes that two of the department supervisors who “turned a blind eye” to the fraud, Joseph Iacoviello and Stephen Vigilante, had previously uncovered and reported fraud by a different IBM contractor. That contractor, Willard Lanham, was sentenced this fall to three years in prison for stealing nearly $2 million from the city. (more…)