Errors in hundreds of Colorado prison sentences, audit says

Published May 14, 2013

Associated Press

DENVER –  A new audit finds that hundreds of Colorado inmates may be serving incorrect sentences due to clerical errors.

The review is still ongoing but has already led prison officials to warn judges that 281 people might have been given sentences that are incorrect. That includes some people who have already left prison and are either on parole or in halfway houses.

Prison officials say judges have already adjusted 56 different sentences.

Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered the audit after it was revealed that a man suspected of killing Colorado's prisons director was released four years early because his sentence was incorrectly recorded by the courts.

There are still more than 2,000 cases awaiting review in the audit.

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Audit: Errors in 100s of Colo. prison sentences

Published May 14, 2013

Associated Press

DENVER –  Hundreds of Colorado criminals were given erroneous prison sentences, and judges and corrections officials across the state are scrambling to keep them from getting out early — or, in some cases, to return them to the prisons they just left, authorities said Tuesday.

Prison officials have alerted courts to 281 inmates whose sentences were incorrect in some way, according to Allison Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections. Judges have already adjusted the sentences in 56 of those cases and are reviewing others. An unknown number of the cases involve people who have already been paroled from prison, or are in halfway houses or other community correctional facilities.

The information comes in the course of an audit ordered by Gov. John Hickenlooper after it was revealed the man suspected of killing the state's corrections chief left prison four years early because the courts gave the prison system incorrect information about his proper sentence.

Only a fraction of the review has been completed. More than 2,000 more cases flagged by auditors as potentially problematic need to be reviewed by corrections officials to determine whether there are in fact more mistakes. If the 56 percent error rate holds up, it would mean more than 1,000 inmates were improperly sentenced.

The audit is looking at 8,415 offenders convicted of at least one of 13 crimes. It is only examining people still under the control of prisons, either via incarceration or parole. It will not be completed until July.

The initial results were first reported by The Denver Post.

"The audit is doing what it was supposed to do and we are working with the courts to correct any errors found," Hickenlooper spokesman Eric Brown said.

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Government rejects full Venezuela vote audit

Published April 26, 2013

Associated Press

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  Plastic wrapped busts of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez sit for sale at a market in Moron, Venezuela, Thursday, April 25, 2013. Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said Thursday the opposition would go to the Supreme Court to challenge the results of the April 14 presidential vote, which was narrowly won by Chavez's political heir, Nicolas Maduro. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela –  A member of Venezuela's top electoral authority says it has formally decided not to meet opposition demands for a top-to-bottom audit of the April 14 presidential election, heightening tensions over the almost evenly split and contested vote.

The government is threatening to jail opposition head Henrique Capriles on charges of masterminding postelection violence. Capriles says he will boycott the audit and challenge what he calls a stolen election in court.

Both sides are stopping short of moves that would escalate the conflict into direct hostility. For the government, jailing Capriles could bring international condemnation and drive more people into the opposition camp. For Capriles, open confrontation could bolster accusations that he only wants violence.

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Audit: Mexico failed with cookie-like monument

MEXICO CITY –  Construction of a monument that Mexico City residents say resembles a giant cream-filled wafer was soured by overspending and building code violations, an audit has found.

Formally known as the Pillar of Light, the 104-meter (343-foot) high structure on the capital's emblematic Reforma Avenue was supposed to cost around $35 million, instead tax payers shelled out $100 million, according to the report released Wednesday by the audit unit of Congress.

The audit found that Mexico's anti-corruption agency failed to oversee spending and ignored costly errors during its construction.

Previous comments by federal officials and contractors had revealed that the monument's construction was plagued with wrongdoings and overspending. But the audit also found that the Public Administration Department, the anti-corruption watchdog, ignored violations of construction codes and full compliance with spending regulations.

The monument, which is made of a series of columns sandwiched by panels of quartz backlit by LED lights, was built to commemorate the bicentennial of Mexican independence. It was meant as a gleaming symbol of hope and inspiration in a country beset by drug violence.

But its construction became a topic of debate in Mexico and it is now commonly known as "suavicrema," a cream-filled cookie with a gridded surface. The tower has also earned nicknames like "the Monument of Shame" and "the Monument of Mexican Dependence."

It was scheduled to be inaugurated on Sept. 15, 2010, but was finished a year-and-a-half late and was not well-received by many Mexicans who saw little of Mexico in it.

The construction company brought stainless-steel columns from Italy, quartz panels from Brazil and a specialized lighting system made by a German-owned company.

The audit concluded that the construction company inflated steel prices and overspent on the quartz and it lied on the actual weight of the tower to justify more expenses.

"They made decisions without the proper coordination and full compliance with regulations," the report said.

The audit also found the committee that oversaw the work signed a contract for an incomplete project that contained errors, including having to dig deeper than it had been established in the beginning.

The management company Triple I Services could not be reached by The Associated Press Wednesday. A spokesman for the Public Administration Department said it would not comment on the report because it referred to faults by the previous administration of President Felipe Calderon, who left office on Dec. 1.

"Those audits belong to the past six-year term. Right now, the department has nothing to say about it," said spokesman Emilio Estrada.

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Adriana Gomez Licon is on Twitter http://twitter.com/agomezlicon

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Audit finds US loan program in Haiti flawed

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti –  An audit of a U.S. Agency for International Department program that aims to boost Haiti's economy by providing loans to overlooked business has found a range of problems in the effort.

Problems include a failure to train workers, to keep accurate records and to award loans to lenders to the intended targets of women, first-time borrowers and small- and medium-sized businesses.

The audit focused on four active guarantees, all worth $31.5 million.

The USAID loan program effort sought to promote greater lending practices to overlooked borrowers and in the areas of agriculture, construction, tourism, handicrafts and waste management.

USAID said it would follow more than a dozen recommendations, which included working with lenders to improve performance.

The audit was released Feb. 28 by USAID's Office of the Inspector General.

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Audit finds US loan program in Haiti flawed

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti –  An audit of a U.S. Agency for International Department program that aims to boost Haiti's economy by providing loans to overlooked business has found a range of problems in the effort.

Problems include a failure to train workers, to keep accurate records and to award loans to lenders to the intended targets of women, first-time borrowers and small- and medium-sized businesses.

The audit focused on four active guarantees, all worth $31.5 million.

The USAID loan program effort sought to promote greater lending practices to overlooked borrowers and in the areas of agriculture, construction, tourism, handicrafts and waste management.

USAID said it would follow more than a dozen recommendations, which included working with lenders to improve performance.

The audit was released Feb. 28 by USAID's Office of the Inspector General.

View the original article here