Audit: Juden abused purchasing methods, claimed to be working during vacations

Former Missouri Department of Public Safety (DPS) director Drew Juden's administration "abused" the state's purchasing process by funneling a more-than $1 million fingerprint-technology contract through a foundation that Juden once chaired, and paid the foundation to manage it, a state audit shows.

The audit said the DPS made "multiple improper and questionable payments" to benefit the Missouri Police Chiefs Charitable Foundation.

State Auditor Nicole Galloway released an audit report Wednesday detailing the improprieties, including violations of DPS policies regarding annual leave and assigned-state-vehicle usage.

Questionable contract

Under Juden, the DPS changed how the department managed the coordination and installation of fingerprint technology at local law enforcement agencies. Previously, those services were provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol at no additional cost to the state.

When renewing the contract, Juden's office did not contact the patrol about providing these services, the audit report said.

Instead, the DPS awarded a $58,000 contract to the Missouri Police Chiefs Charitable Foundation for the management services.

Juden, who formerly served as public safety director for the city of Sikeston, Missouri, had served as president of the Missouri Police Chiefs Association and chairman of the foundation.

In order to get the no-bid contract approved through the state's procurement process, DPS provided false information to the Office of Administration about the nature of the funding and past work of the foundation, Galloway said.

In June 2018, DPS paid approximately $1.25 million to the foundation for payment to a fingerprint-technology vendor, but the equipment was not delivered to local law enforcement agencies for another five to six months. It's believed the early payment was designed to prevent the appropriation from going unspent during the 2018 fiscal year, the audit report said.

However, the payment was made without a written contract in place and violated other existing contracts, the audit showed.

Allowing the police chiefs foundation to hold the $1.25 million in its bank accounts for about eight months prevented the state treasury from earning about $16,000 in interest, the audit report said.

But Juden defended his actions as director.

He recently told KFVS12, "I distanced myself from that whole process."

Galloway, however, said, "Missourians should have confidence their tax dollars are being used appropriately and that contracts are awarded in a way that gets the very best return on their investment.

"No one should think they are above those rules," she said. "That's why it's so troubling that this audit uncovered deliberate actions to try to sidestep these policies."

Juden told the television station that the audit was a targeted attack on his reputation.

"I wasn't going to sit here and be targeted by a bunch of political insiders to tear down my reputation," Juden said in advance of the release of the audit report.

"I'm thinking this is crazy that I'm having to look through this and look at things that are of no substance that are strictly targeting nothing but the time that I was in office," Juden said after looking at an early draft of the audit report.

Juden could not be reached by the Southeast Missourian on his cell phone Wednesday. Repeated messages left were not returned.

The audit examining the administrative practices of the Office of the Director of the DPS as requested by Gov. Mike Parson after an internal review raised concerns about questionable use of taxpayer dollars.

The audit covered the period of January 2017 through August 2018, during which Juden was director. The cost of the audit is being paid from the Gov. Parson's office budget, according to the news release.

Juden was appointed DPS director by Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in June 2018 after months of scandal.

Parson succeeded Greitens as governor and subsequently chose a new DPS director.

Vacation pay

Besides the purchasing actions, the audit found that during his tenure as DPS director, Juden did not claim any annual leave despite calendar entries that showed he was on vacation at various times.

According to the audit, Juden's personal monthly calendar indicated he was in Florida when his time sheet indicated he was working for the DPS.

"This occurred on 15 working days during the former director's employment," the audit report said.

The DPS employee responsible for keeping Juden's calendar indicated that the trips to Florida were for "personal reasons, such as attending the 2017 and 2018 Daytona 500 NASCAR races," the audit said.

"Instead of using annual leave, the former director certified on his time sheet that he worked full eight hour days for the department on those days," the report said.

According to the audit, Juden stated that "as long as he had access to telephone or email, he considered himself to be working."

Upon leaving the department, Juden was compensated $6,864 for his remaining 115 hours of annual leave, the auditor found.

The audit report concluded that "it is likely the former director was overpaid for his unused annual leave, however, due to a lack of documentation we cannot determine the amount overpaid."

Juden, according to the audit report, said "he did not agree with DPS time policies and does not feel the time tracking system accurately reflects the amount of hours he worked."

He said he maintained a daily journal that contained information on his work schedule, but declined to provide it to the auditor's office, the report said.

Vehicle usage

Both former director Juden and former deputy director Greggory Favre were assigned department vehicles. Neither maintained vehicle usage logs, as required by DPS policy, the audit said.

Vehicle usage by Juden averaged 2,956 miles a month, approximately 44% higher than DPS directors both prior to and after his administration, the audit found.

Juden and Favre used their state vehicles to commute from their homes in Sikeston and St. Louis, respectively.

Juden did not keep track of odometer readings, destinations or the purpose of trips as required by DPS policy, the audit found.

Favre kept odometer readings, however, he did not keep records regarding destinations or purposes of trips, the audit report said.

The new DPS director, Sandra Karsten, said she planned to implement the auditor's recommendations to make sure that payments to vendors are not passed through a third party without a legitimate business purpose, time sheets reflect actual work time, and that DPS policies regarding vehicle usage logs are followed.

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