Saturday,  Jan. 11, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 179 • 4 of 34

(Continued from page 3)

and will make recommendations to ensure that the economic development programs have adequate internal control procedures in place to safeguard public funds.
• All of these audits and reviews are expected to be completed by the end of January and will be shared with the Legislature and the public. When the results are known, I will work closely with legislators to decide how the state should respond to the results, and to determine if further reviews are warranted.
• This is a serious matter and it deserves serious attention from state officials. It is important to be thorough and comprehensive, even if doing so takes more time. My goals moving forward are three-fold: to continue to aid in the federal investigation, to recover misappropriated state funds, if possible, and to use these extensive audits and reviews to find ways to improve our processes. 
• Human beings are imperfect. They make mistakes, and sometimes, they act intentionally to benefit themselves, against the public interest. Although we can't always control individual behaviors, we must do all we can to protect the public interest, through policies and processes designed to foresee, detect and prevent mistakes and intentional wrongdoing. Nothing less is acceptable.

© 2013 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.