Lawmaker: Surprise NJ towns with audits, find wasted taxpayer money

Audit teams were eliminated in over a decade ago, but one New Jersey lawmaker is hoping to drum up enough support to bring them back.

"We should have random, unannounced audits of any municipal entity or board of education to determine whether or not we have efficiencies within the towns, communities and schools," said Assembly GOP Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield).

In 1994, Gov. Christie Whitman created the Local Government Budget Review program in order to help local governments and school boards find savings and efficiences without compromising the delivery of services to the public. Funding for the program was eliminated in Gov. Jim McGreevey's first budget.

A bill cosponsored by Bramnick would create the Local Unit Audit Teams program in the Department of the Treasury. A series of audit teams would include, at a minimum, an experienced municipal or school management professional and staff from the treasury, education and community affairs departments.

"I call these SWAT teams of members who have experience in audits. I want them to show up, unannounced to determine whether or not entities or schools are wasting taxpayers' money or not spending it wisely," Bramnick said.

The leader of the General Assembly did not dismiss Branmick's idea out of hand, but he suggested it could be duplicating services already being provided.

"I'd be more than happy to look at it, but this is already being done through the State Comptroller who has the task of weeding out waste, fraud and abuse," said Assembly Speaker Vinnie Prieto (D-Secaucus).

Recent audits by the State Comptroller found:

• The town of Harrison spent millions annually on excessive employee payouts.
• In Newark, the head of the Newark Watershed Corporation wrote unauthorized payroll checks to herself, handed out no-bid contracts to close personal associates and surreptitiously authorized risky investment activity in an account that lost $500,000 in public funds.
• An investigation of the free school lunch program at 15 school districts led to more than 80 criminal referrals of public employees, eight of whom have already been indicted on theft charges.

More audits can be found here.