the staff of the Ridgewood blog
TRENTON NJ, After multiple reports of the Department of Community Affairs’ mismanagement of the federally-funded low-income home energy assistance program (LIHEAP), Assemblymen Hal Wirths and Jay Webber push for the legislature to take action on their bills to ensure only eligible applicants receive benefits.
“How much evidence do we need before we do something to stop the DCA from awarding millions of dollars to people who underreported their income?” said Wirths (R-Sussex).
First News 12 New Jersey’s investigative reporter Walt Kane did on a story on Dennis Kerrigan, a whistleblower who witnessed fraud while working for a Mercer County agency administering LIHEAP funds. Kerrigan also alerted the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Energy, which referred the case to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. The AG’s office closed the case citing “insufficient evidence of a crime” and the Prosecutor’s Office declared the allegations “unsubstantiated.” However, a 2016 report issued by the state comptroller backs up the whistleblower’s claims. And just last week, a new report from the state auditor found as much as $3 million in benefits went to LIHEAP recipients who may have underreported their income.
“Watchdogs have told us repeatedly that bureaucratic negligence is enabling fraud, wasting public funds, and jeopardizing assistance to people who need it,” said Webber (R-Morris). “A simple bipartisan fix was proposed years ago. Let’s enact it before any more tax dollars are wasted.”
The Assemblymen’s bills (A2543 and A2540) would require the DCA to verify applicants’ income and ensure that applicants are not deceased.
WATCH: News 12 New Jersey’s report on the LIHEAP state audit
We need someone (a possible whistleblower from Toll Brothers’ site) like this person described in the above article to expose possible miss deeds happening and documented on the pages of TheRidgewoodBlod and GreenUSR.org for the past 15 months. Here is new example: BREAKING: TOTAL LACK OF DUST CONTROL OBSERVERVED AGAIN in MAHWAH and USR! ????
Strong winds in Upper Saddle River and lack of dust control by Toll Brothers created another environmental violation: dust pollution. Plume of dust covered on Wednesday April 3, 2019 neighoring homes in the vicinity of Apple Ridge former golf course a/k/a “Preserve”. USRPD Police officer Hausch witnessed with me gusts of wind blowing construction dust into my car, his car and all over the neighborhood. At the scene I run also into USR Borough Director James Dougherty who stated that he was only the “middle man” and it wasn’t up to him but up to Boswell to supervise the situation. When I asked him why there were no dust control trucks on this 100 plus acres of desert (btw required by law) he just said “have a nice day” and left the construction scene……………………………………………………………………………………………?????????????????????????????????.Also please watch chilling interview conducted by Bergen Record investigative journalist Scott Fallon with NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Titel about 20 plus year environmental carnage done by Toll Brothers in New Jersey: https://theridgewoodblog.net/toll-brothers-caught-red-handed-committing-another-stormwater-runoff-violation/