Atlanta sewer project audit released, nuggets found
May 4, 2009 at 1:09 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsNothing kicks off a Monday morning like a 170-page audit of Atlanta’s $4 billion sewer system overhaul. We’re still combing through the beast, but Atlanta Unfiltered’s Jim Walls has already found some tidbits.
Walls:
Atlanta’s water department has illegally kept $4 million that should have been refunded to 29,000 customers who closed their accounts, a city audit shows.
Apparently, part of the problem is that no one ever told customer-service reps in the water department about changes last year in the city code. Auditors said employees who handle refunds were unaware of consumer-friendly changes in refund procedures.
On Friday, the AJC’s D.L Bennett wrote a good overview on some, uhm, financial hurdles facing the city and the project:
Atlanta officials fear the city’s $4 billion water and sewer system overhaul could collapse because the city’s crushing debt and already low credit rating threaten the city’s ability to borrow money in ever-tightening credit markets.
The city hopes Monday to issue $500 million to $700 million in new bonds for the program, with much of the money to refund old debt that must be repaid before interest rates or other factors send payments skyrocketing.
“We’ve got some considerable issues facing us,” city CFO Jim Glass said Friday.
No joke. And we’ve got some considerable reading to do. The audit is available here. (Warning: large PDF)
May 5th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
The real nugget in the Watershed audit would be if it told us whether our boatloads of money are being spent reasonably or whether the contractors who got in on the deal have been given a blank check. Did Mr Hunter and Mr Barnes ever work for any contractors / engineers to whom they have been letting these massive projects?