The list of problems at West Virginia's General Services Division runs long -- abused overtime, a taxpayer-funded video piracy studio, a neglected multimillion-dollar state parking garage and no inventory system for its array of tools and equipment, to name a few.
The scandals reached federal court last week, when a former supervisor pleaded guilty to rigging bids for asbestos and lead abatement contracts in exchange for kickbacks from the Maryland firm that received them.
The Charleston Gazette reports on the details in the case against Paul Prendergast, 45.
Prendergast was the division's occupational health and safety coordinator from 1998 to March 2003, and so had access to bid information from companies competing for the contracts.
Federal prosecutors say that in addition to three kickbacks from the firm totaling $11,000, a second company owned by the same principals paid him $140,000 between March 2003 to December 2005.
Neither firm was identified in a statement of facts filed by prosecutors in Prendergast's case.
"Prendergast agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation," the Gazette reports. "He faces up to five years in prison."
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