The city has admitted to giving the wrong data in response to a Baltimore City Inspector General report.

Following a series of reports uncovering dangerous working conditions within the department, a recent IG investigation found 136 sanitation workers were without health coverage. It also found many of them were unaware they were uninsured, and none of them had received their $2,500 waiver credit. In conclusion, IG Isabel Cumming implored the city to communicate more clearly with its workers.

“I realized there was a divide, a digital divide, a communication divide, but a divide existed,” Cumming said.

In response, the city attempted to deny responsibility, pointing to a digital training specifically teaching city employees how to access their benefits. Of the 70 DPW employees who took the training, the city initially claimed 39 were sanitation workers. “This data highlights potential lapses in individual employee accountability,” the city wrote.

“All I did was write back and ask, please, send the names of the people that took the training,” Cumming said. “A few days later, I got a response saying that they had made a mistake.”

Issuing a correction, the city now says only one sanitation worker received the training, blaming the misinformation on a “misinterpretation of a spreadsheet.”

“They obviously maybe got confused as to who was a part of solid waste and who wasn’t,” Cumming said.

The city declined to respond when asked to elaborate on what caused the mix-up. However, in their correction letter, the city says 12 digital training sessions will be offered over the next six months.

“So, we’re all going to be sending messages to the workers involved actually walking them through how to how to get this insurance,” Cumming said.

The importance of health insurance for sanitation workers was highlighted when a sanitation worker died on the job earlier this year. The city hired a law firm to investigate, and last week, Mayor Brandon Scott said their findings were complete. However, the city has yet to release them.

FOX45 sent questions to the mayor’s office and DPW asking how much the law firm was paid and why their final recommendations were being kept from the public. As of the time this article was published, we have not heard back.

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