Chair Krishnan on Adams administration corruption and 28% DOI workforce cuts

Over the years of the Eric Adams administration, we saw troubling amounts of corruption and misuse of city resources.

And while DOI and the FBI investigated Adams on a range of accusations of bribery, conspiracy, and fraud,

And while the work of DOI leading to the federal indictment that we saw was a crucial part of that effort, former Mayor Adams slashed the budget for the Department of Investigations.

We have to be very honest about that.

At a time when an agency was investigating corruption at the highest levels of City Hall, City Hall was depriving that very agency of the resources it needed to do its job.

Yet it did it anyway, and it did it very effectively.

With the limited resources that DOI was saddled with,

They continued and still continue to uphold their duty to hold government accountable.

But make no mistake, Adams severely cut the workforce of DOI and tried to impair their ability to properly and comprehensively oversee city agencies and root out corruption.

28% of the DOI workforce was slashed.

28% and millions of dollars were taken away from the agency.

I deeply believe that this agency needs the funding to be able to do its job and to be the important independent arm of government that they are.