It’s Not Just NYCHA

Last week’s bribery charges against 70 New York City Housing Authority employees are just the latest in a long list of scandals by lower-level city workers who abuse their power over their public mini-fiefdoms.

The Manhattan US attorney accused the employees of skimming $2 million in bribes in connection with NYCHA repair contracts worth less than $10,000 apiece but that added up to a whopping $250 million. It was the largest number of Justice Department bribery charges ever in a single day.

The bribes averaged about $28,000 per worker, but some made far more. Nirmal Lorick made $153,000 from $1.3 million in contracts, prosecutors say; Juan Mercado, $314,300 off $1.8 million.

NYCHA’s $78 billion repair backlog, atop ongoing maintenance at its 2,411 buildings, makes it ripe for corruption — which has long plagued it:

In a 2018 case, the feds charged that NYCHA managers and staff devised schemes to hide problems from federal inspectors, papering over holes, shutting down water piping to conceal leaks, etc.

Before that, the city Department of Investigations found then-NYCHA boss Shola Olatoye falsely certified to the feds that 55,000 units had been inspected for lead-paint hazards.

But self-dealing happens across city government:

Stunning cases of school custodians, uh, cleaning up include two janitors and other workers forced to repay $1.4 million for money they raked in via no-show jobs a decade ago.

A huge 1988 scandal saw 28 health inspectors and supervisors charged with extorting bribes worth hundreds of thousands by threatening to shutter some 300 city restaurants.

And the feds’ NYCHA probe built on one by the city Department of Investigation five years back, well publicized at the time. Which suggests zero interest in the rest of city government in exposing such corruption. It’s as if insiders’ attitude is that nothing’s really wrong with abusing the public trust to line your own pockets — though the actual victims are usually the city’s most vulnerable.

As far as NYCHA goes, housing expert Howard Husock argues that privatizing management is the best way to limit corruption. Hmm: City insiders generally treat “privatization” as a dirty word, along with “merit pay,” “productivity increases” and anything else that might make government deliver more bang to the public for its bucks.

Makes you wonder who’s really working for whom.