>New Jersey Auditor Questions $27 Light Bulbs Billed Under Stimulus Program
By Dunstan McNichol – Nov 12, 2010 4:16 PM
Contractors billed New Jersey $27 for light bulbs, and ran up tens of thousands of dollars in other “unreasonable costs” on a $119 million weatherization program funded with U.S. stimulus money, the state auditor said.
Out of $613,600 in charges reviewed, $54,000, or 8.8 percent, was deemed unreasonable by Auditor Stephen Eells, according to a Nov. 8 report to lawmakers. The audit examined program oversight by the state Community Affairs Department.
One contractor sought $27 for light bulbs, while another billed $1.50 for similar items, according to the report and Assistant Auditor Thomas Meseroll. Another vendor charged $75 for carbon-monoxide detectors that it had provided to a different program for $22, the report said. Eells also cited $32,700 in auditing fees when “no services had been performed” and $69,000 in construction costs that couldn’t be verified.
“Weatherization agencies have been reimbursed for unreasonable costs because of inadequate review of financial reports and lack of guidance from the state and federal governments,” said the audit. It said the state agency’s review of contractor expenditures was “cursory.”
The state didn’t pay for the $27 light bulbs and the $75 carbon-monoxide detectors after the audit, according to Lori Grifa, the Community Affairs Department’s commissioner. Since Eells began the review, the two most-senior state employees overseeing the program have been replaced and a third has been reassigned, Grifa said in a written response to the audit.
The $27 included “labor and materials” for compact fluorescent light bulbs, Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the department, said today in an e-mailed response to questions.
