(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont issued the following statement regarding the release of a report by the Connecticut State Auditors of Public Accounts on the Connecticut Port Authority:
“The findings highlighted in this audit are consistent with the discoveries our administration made earlier this year, and our decision to overhaul the leadership of this quasi-public agency and install severely needed new policies and procedures. For too long, this organization operated without the highest standards of transparency and fiscal best practices that our state’s residents should expect and how state government entities should operate.
“Under our administration, the Port Authority is undergoing a complete overhaul. This summer, DECD Deputy Commissioner David Kooris accepted my request to become acting chair of the board with the responsibility of getting the authority’s operations back on course, including launching an independent audit of its financial and management practices and working with our administration and legislative leaders to identify any necessary statutory changes that will improve its operations. In addition, OPM Secretary McCaw has been assigned to actively participate and have an oversight role in every financial decision being made by the board right now. And while the board is in this provisional phase, we are not allowing it to move forward on any other business that is not directly related to move the state’s offshore wind deal or that are needed to honor existing contracts until the changes to correct its operations are complete.
“What was happening at the Port Authority under the prior management was inexcusable and below what we should expect from an entity such as this. My office has worked and will continue to work to ensure the Port Authority is accountable and that measures are in place to make that happens.”
On October 18, Connecticut Port Authority Acting Chair David Kooris sent a letter to the co-chairs and ranking members of the legislature’s transportation committee providing an update from his testimony at their most recent public hearing on the Port Authority.