NIFA board member seeks contract probe

A member of Nassau's financial control board is asking the state comptroller to investigate allegations that eight social service organizations were not paid for $3.8 million in contract work last year even though the county was reimbursed by the state and federal governments for their services.

George Marlin, a member of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, also asked the state comptroller to look into $6.8 million in outside legal work done for the county before most of the contracts were approved by the legislature or NIFA. And he wants the comptroller to determine if the county violated the law by allowing capital improvement projects to begin before NIFA approved the necessary contracts or borrowing.

NIFA, which imposed financial controls a year ago, is required to approve all county contracts of $50,000 or more, and also must give its consent if the county wants to borrow money.

"There appears to be a pattern of vendors being hired to perform non-emergency services without prior legislative or NIFA approval," Marlin said in a letter Tuesday to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's regional office.

"In my judgment, the county's actions make a mockery of the statutory responsibility delegated to NIFA to approve or disapprove contracts and effectively nullifies the clear legislative intent of the NIFA law," Marlin wrote.

DiNapoli began an audit of the county's contracting process this month. NIFA had asked for the audit after receiving complaints about late payments and unauthorized work.

Asked about Marlin's letter, DiNapoli spokesman Mark Johnson said Thursday, "We're conducting an independent audit. We're getting information from a lot of different sources and we will investigate where it is appropriate.

"I can't comment specifically on any one thing."

Katie Grilli-Robles, a spokeswoman for County Executive Edward Mangano, said in a statement: "We will not be commenting on Mr. Marlin's letter as he does not speak on behalf of the NIFA Board."

Marlin wrote DiNapoli that throughout last year, Nassau did not submit contracts with social service organizations "in a timely manner" to NIFA even though state and federal governments provided reimbursement for most of the services in early 2011.

Marlin said he recently had learned that "as of Jan. 31, 2012, contracts from 2011 for eight social service organizations valued at approximately $3.8 million had not yet been submitted to NIFA for approval," and had not been paid.

Marlin declined in an interview to identify the eight agencies or the source of his information about state and federal payments.