S2565

TRENTON – Legislation sponsored by Senator Ronald L. Rice which would require the State Comptroller to perform a compliance audit to ensure that municipalities which receive poor marks following a performance audit have taken the proper steps to address waste and abuse within their borders was approved by the Senate today by a vote of 26-9.

“Unless municipalities are willing to do the proper follow-through on performance audits of waste and abuse within their borders, these documents simply aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on,” said Senator Rice, D-Essex. “At a time when New Jersey is facing chronic budgetary problems, and municipalities are being asked to do more with less, we have to make sure that funds are spent with a level of oversight, accountability and transparency to guarantee that these funds aren’t being wasted. This bill would hold local government officials’ feet to the fire, to make sure that they act quickly and decisively to end waste, fraud and abuse of the taxpayers’ trust.”

TRENTON – Legislation sponsored by Senator Ronald L. Rice which would require the State Comptroller to perform a compliance audit to ensure that municipalities which receive poor marks following a performance audit have taken the proper steps to address waste and abuse within their borders was unanimously approved by the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee today.

“Without the proper follow-through, a performance audit of waste and abuse within a municipality isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on,” said Senator Rice, D-Essex, and a member of the Senate panel. “In New Jersey, we have a number of agencies and exhaustive oversight to determine whether a municipality or other government agency is wasting taxpayer resources, but we don’t follow up to make sure they’re correcting the problem. This bill would hold government officials’ feet to the fire, to make sure they act quickly and decisively to end waste and abuse of the taxpayers’ trust.”

TRENTON – Senator Ronald L. Rice today introduced legislation requiring the State Comptroller to perform a compliance audit to ensure that municipalities which receive poor marks following a performance audit have taken the proper steps to address waste and abuse within their borders.

“An audit is only a useful tool in fighting municipal waste and abuse if the municipality takes action to correct waste and abuse found in the report,” said Senator Rice, D-Essex. “In my home city of Newark, we’ve had a municipal performance audit on the books for more than a year, and the city has yet to address the findings in the audit. If an audit uncovers waste of taxpayer dollars, the municipality should act immediately to end the waste and ensure it doesn’t happen again.”