Connecticut’s Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into the Connecticut Port Authority after the State Auditor’s Office received two whistleblower reports about the agency from 2019 in regards to a $500,000 fee the agency paid to a consultant.
State Senator Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, who wants to see the Port Authority disbanded, said this is a start but feels the attorney general could have been more forthcoming.
“Many people have been emailing or writing to the Attorney General. Senator Fasano last year, there were people who were citizens, making complaints and along the way they have all been told that the Attorney General was not looking into things, so I’m glad that he’s doing something. I think it’s the right thing to do,” Osten said.
Republican Senator Paul Formica also wrote to Tong asking him to look into spending at the Port Authority.
“This is about clearing out the cobwebs that have plagued the Connecticut Port Authority and occupied too many headlines and news stories over the state of Connecticut and taken the real focus away from offshore wind, which is the new emerging industry that you know Connecticut’s infrastructure for generating energy is going to need,” Formica said.
The Attorney General’s office says their investigation was not prompted by Formica's letter about how the authority spends money.
In a statement, the Connecticut Port Authority said they are “neither surprised nor alarmed” about the review.
