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Accountant, agency differ over firing

By Ashleigh Oldland, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 4, 2008 at 12:20 a.m.

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Ann marie Maynard made recording of meeting.

Ann marie Maynard made recording of meeting.

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An accountant for a state agency claims she was fired for uncovering accounting errors, but the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing says that any errors are being fixed and that Ann marie Maynard was terminated for other reasons .

Maynard, 41, was fired Monday after working in the department for four years as an assisting controller and accountant. Maynard accuses the department of trying to hide accounting errors.

A personnel board action is pending to determine if Maynard is indeed a whistle-blower or an employee with an ax to grind after she recorded a workplace meeting and sent the recording to 9News.

Authorities in the department confirm that the recording is authentic. Those attending the meeting on April 24 were unaware Maynard was taping them. There is no rule prohibiting the recording of department meetings.

Joanne Lindsay, the department's public information officer, said portions of the recording are being misconstrued.

Lindsay says Maynard's termination was not a result of whistle-blowing. "She'd been demoted before and she was on administrative leave when she went to Channel 9," Lindsay said. The department cannot disclose reasons Maynard was on administrative leave because of the upcoming board action.

Bill Finger, an attorney representing Maynard in the personnel board action, plans to use the recording as evidence.

"My client recorded the meeting as a safeguard for herself," Finger said. He said Maynard was demoted from her original position at the department in 2007 after making her first report of fiscal irregularities.

"I do not characterize myself as disgruntled," Maynard said. "I thought it was my personal responsibility to bring that information forth."

Accounting errors from 2004 to 2007 totaled about $8 million.

"Once the error was found, we returned $4 million of the $8 million we owed to the federal government," Lindsay said. "The plan is to go through normal planning budget requests to return the rest of the $4 million to go to the feds next year."