Liu Seeks $6.6M Clawback

New York City Comptroller John Liu said an audit of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Bowery Bay water pollution control project in Queens determined that a consultant’s design errors and omissions had cost the city an extra $6.6 million, but the agency made little or no effort to recoup the money for the city.

“A great deal of taxpayer money was wasted on this waste-treatment project, money that the city can and should recoup,” Liu said. “Consultants may sometimes make mistakes but the city must not pay for those mistakes. We must recoup the money for taxpayers.”

When construction plans need revisions, they incur what are called “change-order costs.” When these revisions are the result of the hired consultant’s errors or omissions, the city has the power to recoup the added costs.

Liu’s audit found that the $213 million Bowery Bay project included $6.6 million in costs caused by the designer’s errors and omissions.

Liu’s audit is available at the comptroller’s website: http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/audit/PDF_FILES_2012/7E12_101A.pdf.

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New York
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