Foley Sux
05-01-2008, 10:23 AM
May 1, 2008
Search Newsday.com Web enhanced by Login or register Home Delivery Cost overruns in Brookhaven topped $2.2M, audit finds
BY ERIK GERMAN | erik.german@newsday.com
May 1, 2008
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Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: Cost overruns on 43 Brookhaven Town public works projects surpassed $2.2 million - chief among them a multiyear remodeling project of the Mastic swimming pool that ultimately cost taxpayers more than $7 million - according to a state comptroller's audit released yesterday.
The 33-page report was issued nearly two years after Brookhaven Supervisor Brian Foley called for Thomas DiNapoli's fiscal sleuths to audit the town's books.
Foley said his administration has already moved to correct many of the problems spotlighted by the report, which covered the period between January 2002 and December 2006.
"This report confirms many of my concerns when I requested the comptroller to examine Brookhaven's capital program," said Foley, who took office in January 2006. "We have every intention of following up on the recommendations."
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DiNapoli said the digging his investigators did in Brookhaven was not an adversarial process. "Here you had an administration that was eager to find out what the shortcomings were," DiNapoli said yesterday in an interview. "I think that's something that's worthy of note."
DiNapoli released an audit in September that found Brook- haven paid millions of dollars more than budgeted for employee overtime and hundreds of thousands of dollars more than it should have on questionable contracts. The findings focused on doings of a previous administration, and Foley welcomed those as well.
In the latest report, DiNapoli's investigators found that the Mastic pool first went $681,000 over budget in December of 2006, requiring that money be siphoned off from other projects to cover the cost.
Further, the audit found that between June 2002 and December 2006 the town grossly overpaid a construction manager who was supposed to be supervising the project. The manager was supposed to make $60,000 on the project during that period.
The town instead paid the manager $568,927, the audit found.
"The dollars add up," DiNapoli said. "That's why it's important that we have this kind of accountability."
The comptroller's investigators also found that Brook- haven spent $372,870 on change orders for continuing projects for which there was no approval by the town board. They found further that the town's records did not contain all the information necessary to monitor projects, and town officials failed to monitor the progress of capital projects to guard against over-expenditures. In addition, employees failed to consistently give town officials updates of progress on public works projects.
"Without this information," the report found, "the board was not able to act timely to control spending."
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Search Newsday.com Web enhanced by Login or register Home Delivery Cost overruns in Brookhaven topped $2.2M, audit finds
BY ERIK GERMAN | erik.german@newsday.com
May 1, 2008
Article tools
E-mail Share
Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: Cost overruns on 43 Brookhaven Town public works projects surpassed $2.2 million - chief among them a multiyear remodeling project of the Mastic swimming pool that ultimately cost taxpayers more than $7 million - according to a state comptroller's audit released yesterday.
The 33-page report was issued nearly two years after Brookhaven Supervisor Brian Foley called for Thomas DiNapoli's fiscal sleuths to audit the town's books.
Foley said his administration has already moved to correct many of the problems spotlighted by the report, which covered the period between January 2002 and December 2006.
"This report confirms many of my concerns when I requested the comptroller to examine Brookhaven's capital program," said Foley, who took office in January 2006. "We have every intention of following up on the recommendations."
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Long Island Pictures
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The most fuel-efficient cars
Green section
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DiNapoli said the digging his investigators did in Brookhaven was not an adversarial process. "Here you had an administration that was eager to find out what the shortcomings were," DiNapoli said yesterday in an interview. "I think that's something that's worthy of note."
DiNapoli released an audit in September that found Brook- haven paid millions of dollars more than budgeted for employee overtime and hundreds of thousands of dollars more than it should have on questionable contracts. The findings focused on doings of a previous administration, and Foley welcomed those as well.
In the latest report, DiNapoli's investigators found that the Mastic pool first went $681,000 over budget in December of 2006, requiring that money be siphoned off from other projects to cover the cost.
Further, the audit found that between June 2002 and December 2006 the town grossly overpaid a construction manager who was supposed to be supervising the project. The manager was supposed to make $60,000 on the project during that period.
The town instead paid the manager $568,927, the audit found.
"The dollars add up," DiNapoli said. "That's why it's important that we have this kind of accountability."
The comptroller's investigators also found that Brook- haven spent $372,870 on change orders for continuing projects for which there was no approval by the town board. They found further that the town's records did not contain all the information necessary to monitor projects, and town officials failed to monitor the progress of capital projects to guard against over-expenditures. In addition, employees failed to consistently give town officials updates of progress on public works projects.
"Without this information," the report found, "the board was not able to act timely to control spending."
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