Is DelDOT the problem or the tip of the iceberg?

A forensic audit of the Department of Transportation has established what many have long suspected: poor record-keeping, irregular check handling and what the new secretary call a “culture of lax management.”

At a time when many in Sussex County are looking for a job or working more than one part-time job trying to make ends meet, the idea that state officials simply failed to cash nearly $161,000 in checks is insulting.

But what might be more insulting is that people were paid to manage that money and the projects that generated them, some of them people with decades of experience in the department.

It’s really not enough that a couple of employees have stepped down or changed positions; that doesn’t explain how a department of state employees could have operated with so little regard for established procedures.

Now DelDOT plans to purchase a document management system, something it clearly needs. But a $1 million new system should mean at least a few employees will become redundant. An investment of that size should increase efficiency to the point that at least a few jobs, which apparently weren’t being done anyway, are no longer needed.

The recession forced private businesses to lay off workers or even shut their doors. Companies that survived had to become leaner and more efficient – and taxpayers have every right to expect the same from their government.

Secretary Shailen Bhatt brought energy and new toughness to DelDOT. He’s already investigated some of the worst problems, and although no one has been charged with wrongdoing and Bhatt says he’s not pointing fingers, he’s hired new people in three of DelDOT’s major departments: finance, planning and real estate. He’s established better transparency, and he's set a clear path going forward to change the culture of his agency, and every division of state government should take note.

In government, as in the private sector, business is no longer business as usual.

Innovation and efficiency and a new dedication to hard work must replace doing things “the way we’ve always done it.”