The recent death of a worker at a New York City construction site has prompted the city to form a taskforce to investigate misconduct and corruption in the construction industry, news sources are reporting.

The announcement of the taskforce came just after two construction companies and two supervisors were indicted in the death of Carlos Moncayo, who died last April when an unsecured trench caved in at a site in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district.

Criminal charges

Wilmer Cueva, a foreman at Sky Materials Corp. and Alfonso Prestia, a senior superintendent for Harco Construction LLC of New York, along with their companies, have been charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Cueva, Prestia and the two companies pleaded not guilty.

Moncayo was an employee of Sky Materials Corp.

Repeated warnings

According to a report by NBC New York. District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there’d been repeated warnings about safety hazards issued at the work site prior to the accident that claimed Moncayo’s life.

New York City safety regulations require excavations five feet or deeper to be fortified in order to protect workers from cave-ins.

The District Attorney’s office will reportedly coordinate with the city's Department of Investigations, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and other agencies in investigating bribery, bid rigging and safety violations in the local construction industry.