Where’s the oversight?

A legislative audit of government contracts with current and former state employees has uncovered possible sweetheart deals that one lawmaker says suggest “criminal activity.”

State Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said the irregularities — which include one unnamed employee billing the state for working 25 hours a day and another receiving payment of $350 an hour — should be reviewed for possible criminal prosecution by the Nevada attorney general.

The legislative review focused on state contracts with 250 current and former state employees, who were paid $11.2 million in 2008 and 2009. In numerous cases, the audit found current state employees billed the state for contract work they performed at times when they were supposed to be at their regular state jobs.

Additionally, “We found some instances when an individual performed similar duties at a significantly higher hourly rate,” the latest audit states. “For example, one agency contracted with a former employee at a rate of $350 per hour versus the $65 per hour cost to the state as an employee.”

State contracts are approved by the state Board of Examiners, which is chaired by Gov. Jim Gibbons. Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller are the other members. But the board meets once a month and typically approves more than 100 contracts in minutes.

The 2009 Legislature passed a bill that required most contracts the state makes with current or former employees to be approved by the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee before they could go forward. But the audit found hardly any contracts have been forwarded to that committee.

Why?

State Budget Director Andrew Clinger explains the Gibbons administration went to the attorney general’s office and secured an opinion that having a legislative committee approve executive branch contracts would be a violation of the “separation of powers doctrine.”

Really?

The purpose of the separation of powers is to create checks and balances, so no single branch of government can operate in the manner of an absolute monarch. The legislative branch is supposed to control the purse strings. Throughout his term, Gov. Gibbons has fought to maintain the prerogatives of the executive branch. That’s often justifiable. But it’s obvious there’s been a lack of oversight on these contracts.

Either the legislators should be allowed some way to review them for waste and fraud, or incoming Gov. Brian Sandoval should ask the state Supreme Court for a definitive ruling on who has that responsibility — and then make sure somebody does more than rubber-stamp them, a hundred at a time.

A million here, a million there — pretty soon this can add up to real money.