City to Receive $500 Million Reimbursement for Fraudulent Timekeeping System

Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it a disaster back in 2010.

CityTime, the $80,000 project created to reduce waste and streamline the city’s electronic payroll system, it turns out, has wasted taxpayers dollars.

Yesterday, Bloomberg and Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn announced that Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) will pay back more than $500 million to the United States government in settlement of charges that SAIC engaged in fraud, resulting in cost overruns to implement the system.

Back in December 2010 when DC-37 AFSCME and its local chapters to vital city services resulting in the layoff of 6,000 more workers – cuts Bloomberg called inevitable - protesters pointed to corporate waste and the $80 million CityTime system, which at the time was under investigation for fraud resulting from gross mismanagement. 

Since 2000, the city has paid approximately $589 million to SAIC in connection with CityTime.

In June, Mayor Bloomberg wrote to SAIC to request that the city, as the victim of a crime, be reimbursed for the entire cost of the project.

Of the $500 million payment, the United States government will remit $466 million to the city to compensate for losses resulting from SAIC’s fraud and, as part of this settlement, SAIC has agreed to waive more than $40 million still owed by the city to SAIC in connection with the CityTime project, bringing the total value of the settlement to more than $500 million.

Today’s settlement, combined with funds already frozen or recouped, results in the city being reimbursed for most of the costs of the project.

“Today’s settlement is a major victory for taxpayers, and just as importantly, it is a major a victory for justice and public integrity,” said Bloomberg said.