The results of an investigation of corruption and waste in DeKalb County will have to wait.
Former Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers said Thursday that he and investigator Richard Hyde need more time to complete their inquiry, and their final report probably won’t be done until Oct. 6. Bowers previously had wanted to finish the report by the end of this week.
“It’s just a lot of material to analyze and go through. We’ve been working weekends and nights, and we just can’t get it all together this week or early next week,” Bowers said. “We’re not going to rush this thing. We’re going to make sure it’s right.”
Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May is frustrated because he expected a report to be issued in early August, about 120 days after the investigation began, said spokesman Burke Brennan. He said the delay is being caused because Hyde is taking a trip to Europe.
“These delays are counterproductive to CEO May’s goal of restoring trust in county government. He is perplexed that it would take 60 days to write a 120-day report,” Brennan said.
May told the investigators early last month that he wanted the final report to be issued by Aug. 26. Bowers had told May's staff last week that he needed another week to finish the report, but that timeline proved to be too ambitious.
Bowers said he informed May’s office Wednesday that they would be late.
Bowers wrote in an Aug. 6 letter to May that he believed they had agreed that the final report would be completed and presented publicly Oct. 6. But May also wrote that day that they settled on the Aug. 26 deadline for issuance of the final written report.
The investigators said in a Aug. 5 memo that DeKalb's government is "rotten to the core," with indications of bribery, theft, purchasing card abuse and more.
May, who hired the investigators, rejected their broad assessment and called for them to provide a detailed final report.
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