Councilmember: $250K audit was unnecessary
From Sunshine Review
13 November 2008
New Orleans' City Council member Stacy Head says that the information the city spent $250,000 on an audit for should have been free. The audit was to determine the number of houses serviced by the city's two trash contractors. However, the trash contractors are supposed to invoice the city monthly with a count of "serviced locations."[1]
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April Meeting
Last April, Sanitation Director Veronica White was questioned over the issue of "serviced locations" by Head and fellow council member Shelley Midura. They wanted to know if Richard's Disposal and Metro Disposal, the city's trash contractors, were providing monthly, updated lists.
White said that such lists were not available, pointing to the audit instead, which was to be finished by August. She said that if the audit showed less than 60,000 homes were serviced, the city would be due retro pay for any number below 60,000.
Info should have already been provided?
The Nagin administration hired PFM, Inc. to conduct the audit. They were to count exactly how many houses were serviced by each trash contractor, at a cost of $250,000. Head says there was no reason for this expense, pointing out that each contract states, "The contractor will refer revised serviced locations lists for city consideration and approval at least once each month." This information, then, should have already been provided by the contractors themselves.
In response, city officials said that the count of serviced locations and the house count by the audit were completely different. New Orleans Deputy Chief Administration Officer said, "These contracts do not have in them that the contractors pay for an annual house count. What they have in them, is they have to provide, for their billings, monthly service locations, which is a count of the locations that they go to."
Audit not ready
At a recent budget hearing, Head questioned a representative from the auditor's office, who said the audit was not even started until August. Grant said they now expect it to be done by December 12.
See Also
NO Councilwoman says sanitation director lied about contract
References
- ↑ WWLTV, Council member say city paid $250K for information it should have had for free, November 17, 2008
