Public servant steals nearly $1 million in computer parts from DND

[211RadOp]

Public servant steals nearly $1 million in computer parts from DND

A former federal public servant who stole nearly $1 million in computer parts from the Department of National Defence and sold some of them on the classified website Kijiji has pleaded guilty to fraud and breach of trust.

Andrew Heggaton, 33, was a civilian member of the Canadian Forces Crypto Support Unit when he ordered the hard drives, motherboards, processors and graphics cards he would later steal over a four-year period between June 2011 and March 2015

More at link.  I remember when he was a CAF member.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/12/05/public-servant-steals-nearly-1-million-in-computer-parts-from-dnd

 

[armyvern]

Public servant steals nearly $1 million in computer parts from DND

More at link.  I remember when he was a CAF member.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/12/05/public-servant-steals-nearly-1-million-in-computer-parts-from-dnd

Well look at that. 

There's a Section 32 and Section 34 signature verification fail.  So, he ordered and scribbled signatures, but who put the actual procurement into the system of record and actioned it based upon "scribbles"?  Him?  Hire an actual sup tech dammit - after all, it IS what they do.... 

Note:  I'm getting the "him?" from this comment in the article:

On Jan. 27, 2015 — four months after his employers first questioned him about a suspicious order — the CFCSU received an invoice from another supplier for the purchase of Intel Core i7 processors that was never logged as being received.

"That invoice was reviewed in the presence of Mr. Heggaton, who began acting in a way that is described as 'weird', stating that it must of been a mistake due to the year-end rush and he would look into it," said Lee-Shanok.

 

[Remius]

Well look at that. 

There's a Section 32 and Section 34 signature verification fail.  So, he ordered and scribbled signatures, but who put the actual procurement into the system of record and actioned it based upon "scribbles"?  Him?  Hire an actual sup tech dammit - after all, it IS what they do.... 

Not trying to be a smart ass here but how many supply techs are there to go around?  And at what rank level? Honest question...

 

[armyvern]

Not trying to be a smart ass here but how many supply techs are there to go around?  And at what rank level? Honest question...

It's a civilian posn; hire an ex-sup tech to do procurement.  Just sayin'.

 

[MJP]

Not trying to be a smart *** here but how many supply techs are there to go around?  And at what rank level? Honest question...

Not enough...but this is a great civilian posn.  Actually two civilian posns, one for procurement and the other for invoicing.

It honestly sounds like a case of bad process(es) to be able to defraud that much.

 

[dapaterson]

Fraud with DND and computers is nothing new.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/former-dnd-employee-pleads-guilty-in-100m-fraud-scheme-1.640036

http://www.obj.ca/Other/Archives/2007-09-17/article-2309140/Cholo-Manso-pleads-guilty-in-DND-fraud-case/1

http://www.obj.ca/Other/Archives/2009-11-20/article-2152318/Mellon-avoids-jail-tim..


And other, non-computer related fraud:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/1377890-dnd-charges-four-in-1.3m-fraud-at-cfb-halifax

http://www.saultstar.com/2012/08/17/woman-sentenced-for-bilking-military-out-of-190000

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/former-canadian-forces-employee-sentenced-to-one-year-for-cfb-wainwright-thefts

 

[George Wallace]

Public servant steals nearly $1 million in computer parts from DND

More at link.  I remember when he was a CAF member.

Was he a Supply Tech?  That would answer some of the questions asked so far.

Interesting to see that this is another multi-million dollar theft of computers in the NCR.  You would think that there would have been some lessons learned a decade ago when a similar theft was done.

 

[dapaterson]

The prior fraud was for services never delivered, not for actual hardware.  There are underlying issues that are similar (inadequate internal controls, or a failure to observe internal controls), but the nature of the frauds is different.

 

[George Wallace]

The prior fraud was for services never delivered, not for actual hardware.  There are underlying issues that are similar (inadequate internal controls, or a failure to observe internal controls), but the nature of the frauds is different.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/champagne-wishes/

 

[armyvern]

Was he a Supply Tech?  That would answer some of the questions asked so far.

He was not.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Apparently had an addiction, which might explain why he continued to defraud them, even though they had questioned his purchases already.

 

[PuckChaser]

Was he a Supply Tech?  That would answer some of the questions asked so far.

Interesting to see that this is another multi-million dollar theft of computers in the NCR.  You would think that there would have been some lessons learned a decade ago when a similar theft was done.

Scuttlebutt is he is a former signaller, and abused the lack of oversight into his job.

 

[211RadOp]

Scuttlebutt is he is a former signaller, and abused the lack of oversight into his job.

Yes he was Sigs

 

[The Bread Guy]

The latest:

A former DND employee and Canadian Forces soldier whose $400-a-day cocaine addiction led to the theft of nearly $1 million in computer parts from the federal government was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison Friday.

And if 33-year-old Andrew Heggaton doesn’t pay back the $966,933.82 the Intel core processors, hard drives, motherboards, and graphics cards were worth within the next eight years, he could be sentenced to another three years of prison time.

Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said the fraud had a “significant impact” on the Canadian Forces Crypto Support Unit where Heggaton once worked, leaving its IT network on the verge of collapsing and seriously affecting the unit’s capacity to function.

“This is not a victimless crime,” Perkins-McVey told Heggaton during the sentencing. “This is the type of offence that erodes the public trust.”

Heggaton pleaded guilty to fraud, trafficking in property obtained by crime and breach of trust by a public officer after stealing the computer parts over a four-year period between 2011 and March 2015. Some of the computer parts were sold by Heggaton on the Internet classified site Kijiji.

Heggaton told a probation officer who prepared a pre-sentence report for the court that drug addiction fuelled the thefts. Heggaton, who had been a soldier in the Canadian Forces for eight years between 2001 and 2009, had begun using illicit drugs during a seven-month tour in Afghanistan in 2003.

The drug use began spiralling out of control once he returned to Canada, and he started using magic mushrooms, ecstasy, speed and cocaine. Heggaton has since attended some Narcotics Anonymous meetings, but has made no effort to attend formal drug addiction counselling, the judge said ...

 

[CBH99]

Legit question here....how does one pay back a huge sum of $$ like that, when 3.5 years of that time will be in prison?  Almost seems set up to fail - may as well have just sentenced him to the 7yrs right off the bat.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Stealing $1M of taxpayers money and snorting it?  Ya I agree.  THEN make him work to pay it back.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I don't feel sorry for him.

 

[QM]

On the bright side, him and most others like him get caught. It's not as though the system is broken and open for abuse. It can just take longer to figure out that abuse is happening.

Much of this is a direct result of downsizing and the various strategic efficiency projects over the years. Fewer layers of bureaucracy are great for effectiveness and productivity, but the downside is that it concentrates responsibility for execution into fewer hands. Supervisors for many functions either don't exist or don't have the capacity or time to manage all elements of their responsibility, so a smart, experienced and slimy staffer can run amok for a period of time without his bosses knowing something is amiss. Spot checks, attention to detail (although, good luck) and a formal audit process are the best defence these days.

 

[c_canuk]

On the bright side, him and most others like him get caught. It's not as though the system is broken and open for abuse. It can just take longer to figure out that abuse is happening.

Much of this is a direct result of downsizing and the various strategic efficiency projects over the years. Fewer layers of bureaucracy are great for effectiveness and productivity, but the downside is that it concentrates responsibility for execution into fewer hands. Supervisors for many functions either don't exist or don't have the capacity or time to manage all elements of their responsibility, so a smart, experienced and slimy staffer can run amok for a period of time without his bosses knowing something is amiss. Spot checks, attention to detail (although, good luck) and a formal audit process are the best defence these days.

If you are claiming procurement has a lack of bureaucracy, I disagree.

I've seen the supply system open up to untraceable abuses specifically because further layers of bureaucracy were added.

It comes down to the direct supervisors not the levels of middle men above. If the direct supervisor is doing his job, he would have been approving each and every purchase this individual made. However, since the supervisors are busy creating reports and filling out paperwork to justify routine purchases to people so isolated from daily operations they barely comprehend what's in them in the first place, the supervisors don't have as much time to do their jobs.

I expect the outcome of this is going to be yet another level of "checks and balances" that will take ever more time from the local supervisors, further isolating them from the day to day, making it easier for the corrupt to obfuscate purchases of this sort.

This wasn't caught by a high level of bureaucracy in puzzle palace, this was immediate supervisors finding time to look into his purchases and start asking questions. No level of paperwork will replace an attentive supervisor. Paperwork is fake-able, eyes on the ground, not so much. It doesn't matter how much of a paper trail you build, if the immediate supervisor is not doing their job you can't be sure the paperwork reflects reality and at that point it's useless time and resource suck. Either you can trust the people on the ground or you can't. If you can't no amount of paperwork will fix that.

Also, seeing as kit I needed in 2015 that was cancelled 3 months before the deadline due to lack of time, which was re ordered on the 1st of April 2016, has been cancelled yet again by SSC, I don't see how you can claim procurement has a lack of bureaucracy.

We've got too much and it's impacting operations. those at the high end of the CoC who think more paperwork and bureaucracy can fix everything need to consider it's only as reliable as the people churning it out.

 

[Jarnhamar]

had begun using illicit drugs during a seven-month tour in Afghanistan in 2003.

What a piece of shit.