The Public Service Commission, the investigation of the fraud accusations of the former BGE employees

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The Maryland Public Service Commission on Monday ordered an investigation into accusations of fraud against Baltimore Gas and Electric made by 14 former employees, but rejected its request to join the dispute on the increases in proposed rates.

The former employees, who are also demanding the public services company in the Circuit Court of the city of Baltimore for alleged racial discrimination, in December they presented a motion to intervene with the PSC, which regulates public services.

They accused a BGE employee of falsifying documents and claiming to have made thousands of gas infrastructure inspections when he really made less than 100 for a period of four years. They say that time passed in a sports port of Kent County when he claimed to be working and that his boss could not verify his location.

BGE is trying to recover $ 153 million from taxpayers by 2023. It is necessary to demonstrate that their cost increases were “incurred prudence” and that it exercised a “good management judgment” so that the State approves it.

Without deciding on the merits of former employees’ claim, the PSC denied the motion because it arrived four and a half years after the deadline to intervene. He rejected his argument that there had been a “restart” in the schedule that allowed them Taxpayers

“There is no dispute that the petitioners could not present a timely request to intervene in this procedure,” says the order, signed by the four members of the Commission, Frederick Hoover Jr., Michael Richard, Kumar Barve and Bonnie Suchman.

“Although the petitioners correctly claim that the commission has granted requests to intervene generously in the past, the Commission considers that it would be inappropriate to grant the request of the petitioners given the substantial amount of time between the deadline and the presentation of the petition.”

The commission also said that he was “worried” about the statements and ordered his internal engineering division to investigate and inform his findings within 60 days. Depending on the findings, the PSC “can open additional procedures to investigate and remedy the matter more.”

“Those accusations, if they are true, could have important security and cost implications,” says the order.

David Baña, the lawyer of the former employees, said he would appeal the denial of the PSC before the Circuit Court of the city of Baltimore and would try to stop the increase in the rate during the appeal process.

“The position of the commission challenges logic,” he bathed in a statement. “Basically, they are saying that my clients should have known about fraud three years before it happened. That is not only unreasonable, it’s impossible. ”

In response to the petition, BGE’s general lawyer, David Ralph, described the accusations of “outrage” and “spurious”, and wrote that it was an “obvious attempt to attract attention” that was “full of inaccuracies and misrepresentations.”

BGE said in a statement that the alleged fraud is not related to the costs that he is trying to recover in the reconciliation of 2023, and that he would work with the engineering division.

“The accusations raised by members of a group of plaintiffs who are in litigation with BGE are not relevant to the limited issue of 2023 reconciliation and applaud the Public Service Commission for recognizing that these accusations are best addressed in the judicial courts Where BGE is strongly defended against the claimants’ claims, “spokesman Nick Alexopolous wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, elected officials, from the City Council to Maryland’s attorney general, Anthony Brown, are trying to control costs with a bill in the General Assembly known as the Alcalizos Protection Law.