OAN’s Avril Elfie
10:51am – Saturday, May 18, 2024
Investigators have discovered that a mother-son team working for the city’s Department of Education (DOE) defrauded a Manhattan public school for children with disabilities out of approximately $8,500.
advertisement
Marlene Delgado, 62, works as a school secretary at PS M169, a K-12 school with 305 special needs students.
According to an article recently published on March 23rd,rdIn 2023, she authorized payments to her son, a 36-year-old substitute paraprofessional, during a 55-day period in which he did not sign in or attend, according to a 2023 City Schools Task Force report.
Officials said Delgado, who was responsible for processing payments to subcontractors, also gave his son an additional 50 minutes of his time five times when he signed in.
“Mr Koukalas knowingly received improper payments (totaling $8,479.78) for days and hours he did not work,” the report to Finance Minister David Banks said.
PS 169M principal granted Delgado’s son permission to interview as a substitute aide for two weeks in September 2019.
Authorities discovered that Delgado enrolled her son for an additional six months without the principal’s consent and entered his timesheets into the DOE’s payroll system.
According to the SCI report, the mother and son “engaged in employee fraud, falsification of documents, and theft of services.”
Mother and child have refused interviews with SCI investigators.
Koukalas was fired in January 2020 and placed on the Department of Energy’s “do not hire” list, while Delgado remains in the same position at PS M169.
Delgado agreed in March to pay a $10,000 fine to the city’s conflict of interest commission.
Stay informed. Receive breaking news directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Please share this post!
