Posted on 05/05/2014 7:43:22 AM PDT by Scoutmaster
Federal auditors are questioning more than $500,000 in Hurricane Sandy debris removal costs in Belmar, saying the town awarded two contracts that did not comply with federal rules and lacked paperwork to support other expenses.
The Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Inspector General today released its findings about the hard-hit Monmouth County borough, marking the third time a federal audit of a Jersey Shore towns debris removal work following the storm has been made public. The way two contractors charged for cleanup work accounted for more than half of the expenses flagged in Belmars audit.
Federal auditors said Belmar should not be awarded roughly $285,000 because two firms identified as J.H. Reid of South Plainfield and Ferreira Construction of Branchburg by Belmar Mayor Matthew Doherty used a cost-plus-percentage-of-cost method of billing, which federal rules do not allow.
. . .
The auditors found awarding the two contracts, which were worth roughly $1.6 million in total, without bid was justified due to the emergency nature of the work. However, the auditors found, the $285,00 in markups should be not be reimbursed to the town through a federal grant program open to local governments.
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Both firms disclosed how they were billing the town, [Belmar Mayor Matthew Doherty] said. Also, he noted, the Federal Emergency Management Agency created and approved project worksheets based on those bills.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Youse gotta problem wit dat?
Had Belmar jumped through all the fed paperwork hoops, the beach would still be a shambles.
The workers probably belonged to the wrong union.
What the hell did they expect? This is NEW JERSEY, home of the Sopranos.
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