Queens Gazette:City Comptroller John C. Liu announced on January 11 that the Parks Department’s failure to monitor its capital construction projects had allowed almost half of those projects to finish late and 10 percent to go significantly over budget in Fiscal Years (FY) 2010 and 2011.
“New Yorkers and visitors alike love our parks. Repairs and upgrades must be better managed, not only to reduce wasteful spending, but also to minimize the duration of park closures,” Liu said. “The Parks Department can do better.”
In FY2010 through FY2011, the Parks Department completed 315 capital construction projects, at a cost of $496.3 million. Comptroller Liu’s audit found that:
•149 (47 percent) of those projects finished late. The projects were 218 days late on average. These late projects were supposed to have been completed within 284 days on average, so the delays resulted in almost doubling the length of time planned for completion.
•30 projects combined to rack up $10 million in cost overruns, over and above the additional $8.6 million in contingency allowances for overruns that they burned through. The projects had been budgeted at a combined cost of $69.6 million.
•Despite spending $4 million to correct consultants’ design errors and omissions on various projects, the Parks Department did not use its right to try and recoup the money.
6 comments:
In the private sector the chief gets canned - in Govt their relatives get the extra overflow as a reward!
How can they STILL be working on the second bocce court at Bowne Park???
According to a contractor friend, this should have been a two-week job, tops. It's been stretched out to SIX MONTHS!!! No one is ever there!!! AND the Dept. of Parks allocated $500,000 for this nonsense! Gee - who's pockets got lined on that deal?
The bocce players chain smoke and litter right next to the kiddie park!! Bowne Park is totally run down and neglected but somehow the DOP found $500,000 for a stupid bocce court. It's inconceivable!!!
Yo...Mr. Comptroller...
why aren't you looking into the OVER BUDGETING that's been going on for years at Theater In The Park located in FMCP?
Are they some of your friends?
overbudget on a way-underfunded department.
NYCs parks dept. has the lowest funding percentage of just about every other major city.
"How can they STILL be working on the second bocce court at Bowne Park???"
How hard can it be to section off a piece of dirt? Even the most incompetent immigrant contractor can have it done in a couple of weekends.
And why are we spending the cash on bocce courts for old geezers who will be dying off in the next decade instead of investing in basic repairs and upkeep for the whole community? I mean, this is corruption, not just inept planning and budgeting.
are they also remodeling the lavatory building for toddlers,teens,adults ,who use the rest of the Bowne Park playground facilities? it is really in bad shape.
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