A former U.S. surgeon general is facing allegations that she forced state employees to work overtime handling her personal errands, such as grocery shopping, watering plants at her home and driving her family on trips, according to a report released yesterday by the New York State Inspector General.

For all these personal tasks, workers spent 2,500 hours of overtime, which cost the state about $48,000.

 

Antonia C. Novello, 64, was the commissioner of the New York State Department of Health from 1999 to 2006. Novello was hired last year as the vice president of Women's and Children's Health & Policy Affairs for Disney's Children's Hospital at Florida Hospital.

 

As an example, Dr. Novello bought a heavy statue of Buddha during a shopping excursion in Troy, N.Y., and then required one of state employees to trasport it to her apartment. She ordered him to move it a few days later because she didn’t like its location.

 

Novello is accused of using two security guards to check her mail at her home, move furniture, pick up her dry cleaning. One guard complained that she used his home to store her vehicle.

 

The list of accusations also includes: security guards were asked to transport Novello’s mother to the Newark airport to catch flights to Puerto Rico; an Albany guard was obliged to work on Christmas in 2006 to drive her to Newark; she allegedly had state workers drive her on excursions to three malls in the Albany area.

Novello’s situation has a precedent in the US in 2006, when former State Comproller Alan G. Hevesi, admitted that he had used state workers to drive his ailing wife.