State Comptroller's Audit Slams Evers, Town

It was everything critics had expected and more. The long awaited audit of Water District 14 was released yesterday by the Office of the State Comptroller. It particularly slams Mark Evers and officials in the Building Department for their lack of oversight and extends criticism to the town comptroller's office as well.

You can read the entire travesty here. You can read the Troy Records Account here. If you saw CH 6 news last evening, you already know that Mark Evers disappeared and made himself unavailable for comment on the audit or its findings. That took guts Mark. But an even more spineless act came in the form of a press release from Lou Desso and Al Spain who attempted to blame the prior board majority, not Evers or Kern, of course, for the actions of employees in the Building Department whom Evers protected and provides no oversight. The Councilmen must have forgotten that each time the Majority tried to put a supervisor in place in that department, Evers managed to fire them. They also forget that that former majority called for this audit with Evers and Kern voting NO. Scrutiny of their operation was the last thing wanted. One last comment on Ever's comments in the Record. We won't be selling water to Poestenkill to finance the overspending in WD 14. In case you did not read the paper last year, Poestenkill is buying water from Brunswick. All that extra money for those pipes etc, down the drain.

The findings amount to a devastating account of a Building Department that failed to communicate its continued approval of work in Water 14, work that exceeded the contract price and the bonding authority without telling the Town Comptroller or the Town Board. These are the folks Evers continues to protect. The same employees who screwed up the Storm Water Management requirements and got the town fined more than $5,000. Yes the same Building Department whose head is a member of the Town Conservative Committee and who approves payments to the company run by the Chairman of the Town Conservative Party which endorses Mark Evers and his Board Majority to hold power in North Greenbush. Just one big happy family dishing out our hard earned money like it was, well, water.

In the middle of it all was Mark Evers on a December morning ordering an employee in the Comptroller's Office to cut his contractor a check for $83,000 even though he knew all the bond money was expended and more. There was no more money to be legally spent. That didn't stop Mark from ordering and hand delivering just one more check. It didn't stop him from calling 3 special board meetings in January to try and get the contractor even more money the town no longer had in the form of retainage. That money, a hold back on each bill, had also been spent on the over runs so it existed on paper only.

We'll let the State Comptroller say the rest while you ponder the thought that Jeff Spain, Jack Casey, Tom Connolly and Michael Casale, all chairs of the four major political parties endorsed Mark Evers and his crew in a 4 way deal to try and make your vote meaningless. We wonder if they feel some shame after reading this audit?

Here are just a few of the State Comptroller's findings:

“During our audit period, we found that a lack of communication and coordination among Town officials resulted in project expenditures exceeding the authorized amount of $7.1 million by $268,000, with total expenditures at $7.4 million for the yet to be completed project. Furthermore, based on Town estimates at the time of our examination, construction costs will likely amount to approximately $7.9 million upon final completion of the project.”

“The construction contract, as written, appears to be a unit price contract that provides for certain specified cost increases. We did not evaluate whether the unit price provisions were properly included in the contract. However, even assuming that they were, good business practices dictate that there would be some indication that the Board was informed of and in agreement with the additional costs. The Building Department staff should have actively communicated any resultant changes in project cost to the Town Comptroller and Board. Had this information been properly shared, decisions as to whether to proceed with the changes and secure the required approvals and additional funding could have been addressed in a timely manner.”

“However, while reviewing the 240 claims related to the project we noted several non-project expenditures that were charged to the project, claims that lacked adequate documentation, and disbursements where procedures were not properly followed:
• 110 claims, totaling $3.7 million, were listed on abstracts that were not certified by the Town Comptroller.
• 20 claims, totaling $1.5 million, lacked evidence that they had
been subjected to audit by the Town Comptroller.
• Two checks (one for $407,799 and another for $2,795) were
issued without the signature of the Supervisor. Instead the
checks were signed by the Town Comptroller.
• 20 non-project claims totaling $139,149 were erroneously
charged to the project. These expenditures were primarily
operating and maintenance charges. (Note: Total project costs
noted previously are adjusted for these non-project related
expenditures).
• 22 claims, totaling $12,759, lacked adequate supporting
documentation or were not properly itemized.
• 17 claims, totaling $10,875, lacked evidence of approval by
the department head.

“The failure to perform a proper audit of claims increases the likelihood that payments may be made for unauthorized purposes or for goods or services that have not been received or performed.”

“The claims listed on the abstract for payment including capital project claims and related documentation were not physically reviewed by the Town Board. However, even this practice was not consistently followed. For example, we determined that during the scope of the project, 124 project claims totaling over $1.8 million were paid prior to any such Board review or approval.”