MILTON, Georgia — A Georgia Department of Transportation project could be delayed up to three years after the agency said one of their own filed fictitious documents.
Work was underway clearing land along Highway 9 in Milton when a property owner started asking questions. After an investigation, GDOT discovered that internal documents indicating the state-owned 139 strips of land had been falsified.
The department fired a right-of-way acquisition specialist who had been with the department for ten years. 11Alive isn't identifying the former employee because they haven't been charged with crimes.
Property owners along Highway 9 saw work begin on the long-anticipated widening project. It didn't last; the project is now on hold.
"You see the cones, they sent someone out to meet with us, you think it’s about to break loose then all of a sudden, nothing," said Marc Rainwater, co-owner of Superior Indoor Comfort.
The owners of Superior Indoor Comfort said a GDOT representative spoke with them months ago about purchasing a slice of their property along Highway 9.
"No firm offer, no exact markings on what they’re going to take," said co-owner Superior Indoor Comfort's Troy Hodges. "Nothing firm."
GDOT said the fired employee had an otherwise unblemished record with the department.
"It was the exception for this employee who’d done their job successfully for many years but in the last several years made a deliberate decision to defraud the department," said GDOT's Natalie Dale. "This employee made a straightforward decision to make an unethical choice."
GDOT says they don't know what motivated the employee to file documents falsely claiming they'd done their job. There's no indication anyone else was involved or that the employee pocketed any of the money that was supposed to be used to purchase land.
"No money left that account, so that's something we're also looking into but, no, there was no kickback, no financial gain," Dale said.
The department has found falsified documents related to five different road projects. Four of them will proceed after a short delay. Dale said GDOT has to begin the process of actually purchasing property for the Highway 9 project, which could delay work by as much as three years.
GDOT says their former employee lied to Right-of-Way attorneys so they wouldn’t examine her documents. Dale said that in the future, attorneys would double-check everything.
"We’ve looked deep into policies and procedures to discover where the loophole was," Dale said. "It’s important to know this is the exception and not the rule."
The case is now under investigation by the Georiga Attorney General's Office and the state inspector general.