Malden to add tracking software
Malden City Controller Domenic Fermano hopes to launch financial tracking software in his office and the city’s Treasury Department by next summer, reacting to an embezzlement scandal allegedly involving a Treasury employee.
Fermano told the City Council’s Finance Committee on Tuesday that the program will come from SoftRight, a Westford-based company that sells management software to local governments.
In addition to the programs for the controller and treasurer’s offices, the city plans to launch software programs for the its payroll and vendor database.
About 50 communities in the state use SoftRight, Fermano said, adding that Medford officials have used the company’s software for about five years.
“It’s a very easy tool to learn,’’ Fermano said.
Residents clamored for a safeguard - and a staff shakeup - after then-Treasury employee Gia Marie DeSantis was arrested last year on a charge of stealing more than $250 from city coffers with the help of several accomplices. Authorities have said the amount of money actually missing was at least $500,000. DeSantis has a Jan. 25 trial date.
Nine others - none of them city employees - are charged with one count each of larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny. Their cases are pending.
During private executive session meetings last summer, the City Council found that her office kept spotty, handwritten records for many transactions. Councilors pledged to order new software for the department and look into pulling municipal accounts from Eastern Bank.
They also announced the suspension of an unnamed, high-ranking official in connection with the alleged scandal. Part of the suspension was unpaid, and records indicate that Treasurer-Collector Frank Vacca did not receive a paycheck during the first week in August, shortly after the suspension was announced.
According to payroll records obtained by the Globe through a Freedom of Information Act request, Vacca did not receive a check for the first week in August, but was paid for the remaining three weeks and all of September. He is currently on medical leave.
