Garbage contracts in audit, interesting findings.

[wrobert]

The 2009 CAFR has finally been released.

Walton County CAFR

Interesting information about Dayco in the audit findings. I guess reporters do not watch these sorts of things because all I have seen in the news so far is that they are going to start charging small businesses for garbage pickup. I wonder what about the billings for prior years. Will be interesting to see what Waste Management looks like when it is done.


Criteria ? Committee on Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission?s integrated framework on internal control.
Condition ? The County has entered into franchise agreements for the collection of solid waste with Dayco Walton, Incorporated d/b/a Dayco Disposal, Ltd. (Dayco) and Waste Management, Incorporated of Florida d/b/a Waste Management of Northwest Florida (Waste Management). Each agreement is independent of the other with different expiration dates, service charge rates and geographic areas served. An internal audit of the billings submitted by Dayco and paid by the County since the contract was renewed in March 2006 determined the County had been overbilled $587,397. The results of an ongoing internal audit of Waste Management were not available as of this report date.
Context ? The amount of payments made to Dayco from March 2006 through January 2010 totaled $6,070,371. The County was overbilled for this same period in an amount totaling $587,397.

 

[Matt J]

That should help with the budget shortfall, no?

 

[WCTA]

In 2008 the WCTA began questioning the billings for Garbage pickup when a comparison of households to billings did not seem reasonable and accurate. Calls for an audit of the billings went unheeded until late last year when the Office of OMB received permission to conduct an internal review by Interim County Administrator Lyle Ziegler.

The OMB department compared the E-911 database to the household listing provided by Dayco. The result of the E-911 comparison revealed the following problems:

1,390 addresses we could not locate as existing
831 addresses which were commercial
55 addresses not in Walton County
1 address in the DeFuniak Springs franchise area
1 address in the Waste Management area

Total 2,258 address billings to be resolved.

An independant contractor was hired to visually inspect each discrepancy and the resulting listing was provided to Dayco on January 4th asking them to provide an explanation on each discrepancy within 30 days.

Dayco successfully provide documentation on over 500 of the 2200(+/-) addresses. The resulting 1700 (+/-) billing addresses resulted in a $587,000 over billing since 2006.

The WCTA was told that the statute of limitations prevented recovery of the over billing prior to that time. We were also informed that any attempt to recover past billing errors would be a decision of the BCC.

It is of note that the cost of the independent contractors work was approximately $9,000 and that the first billing from Dayco after the billing errors were removed from the calculations the Dacyo bill dropped by over $10,000.

Sources inside the OMB have stated that the same process of discovery is in process with the Waste Management portion of Walton County. A similar process utilizing the GIS maps and E-911 database have placed over 1700 addresses into question. That internal audit process has not been completed.

The WCTA was contacted by Attorney George Ralph Miller stating that law enforcement investigations into the billing practices were ongoing and that the WCSO had requested that the presentation of the audit of the 2009 fiscal year be delayed for 30 days.

The WCTA had a public records request for copies of the CAFR on file and a scheduled meeting with William Pennington with the Clerk of Courts Office scheduled to review the CAFR.

The audit was scheduled to be presented by Carr, Riggs at the last BCC meeting.

The WCTA agreed to not reveal any information concerning the audits until the CAFR was released.

The CAFR mentioned by wrobert was located on the Clerk of Courts website on Friday. It is not listed in the normal location for initial release by the Clerk of Courts. The thirty day time period mentioned by Mr. Miller has not expired.

The WCTA has questions concerning the delay, recovery of the over billings, and media releases by the PIO office of the administration without mentioning the over billings. We also wonder why the BCC has paid for invoices for over 10 years without ever auditing the statements.


*** It should be noted that Commissioner L Jones is employed by Waste Management but has no responsibility for the operations within Walton County and has recused himself for any votes concerning Waste Management since being employed by Waste Management.

 

[wrobert]

That should help with the budget shortfall, no?

Maybe but Dayco is requesting that they repay the sum at the rate of $5K per month until they can pay more or it is paid. That is a pretty good interest free loan (I say this because no mention of interest in the audit).

I also have heard of a figure as high as $1.7 million since the inception of the contract. While the statute of limitations would seem appropriate for criminal conduct, I do not understand why the BCC can not seek civil action against them for the full amount. I would also suggest they do so if for no other reason than to have some protection in case the company were to cease to exist.

 

[Alicia Leonard]

Dotty Nist will have an article out on this in this week's edition of the DeFuniak Herald/ Beach Breeze.

 

[Johnny Post]

Sources inside the OMB have stated that the same process of discovery is in process with the Waste Management portion of Walton County. A similar process utilizing the GIS maps and E-911 database have placed over 1700 addresses into question. That internal audit process has not been completed.

The WCTA has questions concerning the delay, recovery of the over billings, and media releases by the PIO office of the administration without mentioning the over billings. We also wonder why the BCC has paid for invoices for over 10 years without ever auditing the statements.

*** It should be noted that Commissioner L Jones is employed by Waste Management but has no responsibility for the operations within Walton County and has recused himself for any votes concerning Waste Management since being employed by Waste Management.

Let me get this straight. One group is ripping the county off, and has been for a decade? Another group might be, and is employing a current commissioner while doing it?

I think the WCTA might have answered their own questions based on that last statement. How is that not illegal or unethical?

You would at least think we could have gotten something better than blue bags out of that arrangement. Good grief.

 

[wrobert]

Let me get this straight. One group is ripping the county off, and has been for a decade? Another group might be, and is employing a current commissioner while doing it?

I think the WCTA might have answered their own questions based on that last statement. How is that not illegal or unethical?

You would at least think we could have gotten something better than blue bags out of that arrangement. Good grief.

Does seem like those dollars could have made for a heck of a recycling program.

 

[Matt J]

IIRC the blue bag program was through a grant that was not renewed and thus we no longer have the bags.

 

[North Lake]

IIRC the blue bag program was through a grant that was not renewed and thus we no longer have the bags.

That is correct.

 

[TreeFrog]

Rereading wrobert's original post, Dayco overbilled by nearly $600K over a period of nearly 4 years. If they are granted their request for payback at $5K per month, that's 10 years to pay it back - before any penalties or interest. If their request is granted, we'll know that the problem is not just with Dayco.