DETROIT – A report released by Detroit's inspector general says there was no criminal wrongdoing in the city's demolition program, but the separate federal investigation is far from over.
The inspector general's report is a timeline of who did what and when in the demolition program in Detroit. Meanwhile, the FBI has an ongoing separate investigation. The city's report shows mistakes were made but no crimes were committed.
The independent inspector general put together a detailed, 36-page report on the controversial early days of demolition in Mayor Mike Duggan's administration.
In 2015, there were accusations of bid-rigging and massive price increases by contractors working for the Detroit Land Bank. At the time, Duggan took responsibility.
"I made them operate at that speed without the compliance program in place," Duggan said. "I can tell you the people running it today are highly qualified and doing a good job."
He said there were mistakes made but no crimes committed.
"The city agencies made mistakes, no question," Duggan said. "We did not build a strong enough compliance program to manage the volume."
On Wednesday, the inspector general's report backed up Duggan, saying, "The large-unit contractor meeting did not violate any existing written state or federal blight elimination program jobs."
As for mistakes, the report said, "The meeting lacked fairness, openness and transparency because it excluded smaller contractors and, by doing so, it portrayed the notion that select contractors were given preferential treatment. Moving forward, the OIG recommends that all potential contractors attend meetings involving the potential contracts."
Due to the federal investigation, representatives of the mayor's office didn't go on camera. It did release a statement, however, which is below.
"The report is very thorough and professional and we fully support its conclusion. We were pleased to see the report confirmed there was no evidence of waste, fraud, abuse or corruption in the unit price procurement they reviewed."
The FBI is continuing to investigate bid-rigging and price fixing.
You can view the inspector general's full report below.