Two Morgan City Housing Authority employees suspended

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has temporarily suspended two Morgan City Housing Authority employees because they were indicted for allegedly receiving illegal bonus payments.
Housing Authority Accounting Tech Diana Pace and Housing Manager Sandra Greene were notified of their immediate suspensions Thursday, HUD Regional Spokeswoman Patricia Campbell said Friday.
HUD Headquarters Spokesman Brian Sullivan said the suspensions are without pay.
The employees’ suspensions are based on their indictment and temporary pending the outcome of criminal proceedings, according to letters the Morgan City Housing Authority received from HUD. The letters were signed by Craig T. Clemmensen, director of the Departmental Enforcement Center.
On Feb. 18, a federal grand jury indicted Pace and Greene, along with former Morgan City Housing Authority Executive Di-rector Charles Spann and former Housing Manager Tori Johnson, on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The indictment accuses Spann, Johnson, Pace and Greene, and others of conspiring with one another, from 2007 to 2013, “to commit offenses against the United States” by issuing and receiving over $500,000 in bonus payments to which they weren’t entitled.
Pace and Greene were also indicted for 14 counts of theft of government money. Johnson faces 12 counts of theft of government money, and Spann was indicted on five counts of government money.
Pace and Greene are both classified state civil service employees. Spann served as executive director from April 2007 until June 2013, when he resigned. Johnson resigned before Spann did.
A December 2014 Louisiana legislative auditor’s report said the Morgan City Housing Authority paid almost $700,000 in improper bonuses and wages in excess of what state civil service rules allowed between 2007 and 2014.
The audit report said the housing authority “improperly paid” employees $566,544 in bonuses between November 2007 and March 2013 based on a reward policy that was altered by Johnson, the authority’s housing manager.
The state auditor’s report said another $130,418 was improperly paid by the housing authority to three employees as raises in excess of civil service guidelines. The improper raises were paid in six separate increases between May 2009 and June 2014. Some employees received a 20 percent salary increase in a five-month period in 2009, according to the investigative audit.
Auditors said that state civil service commission officials approved a one-time reward payment for classified employees, not to exceed 10 percent of the worker’s annual salary. The payment was to be made to employees between July 2006 and November 2007 for work performed in removing the housing authority from its previous troubled status, the audit report said.
Payments totaling $111,657 were paid to Spann, who was not eligible to receive any of the payments because his job was not covered by civil service, the audit said.
Pace received $137,661 in improper awards; Johnson, who also handled all civil service matters, received $100,041; and Greene received $165,405 in improper rewards, according to the audit report.
On the finding concerning improper pay raises, the audit report said Greene received $61,756 in excess wages between May 2009 and September 2012; Pace received $47,965 in excess pay in the same period; and Johnson was paid $20,697 in excess wages during that period. The civil service regulations allowed up to a 5 percent increase, but in most cases the three workers received raises of 4 to 10 percent on each of the six occasions, according to auditors.