Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Contract with Bethpage Associates, LLC

The contractor was awarded a 20-year license agreement to provide food and beverage services at Bethpage State Park on Long Island. As part of the agreement, the contractor is required to pay the State a monthly fee based on its gross revenues and to expend a certain amount on capital improvements at the Park. We examined whether the contractor was complying with the terms of the license agreement. We found that the amount spent by the contractor on capital improvements significantly exceeded the minimum amount required by the contract. However, the cost of the improvements also significantly exceeded the amounts budgeted. We determined that the improvements were not closely monitored by officials of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and concluded that this lack of monitoring may have contributed to the cost overruns. We also found that the contractor did not pay the full amount due in monthly fees. We recommended that significant improvements be made in the controls over revenue accountability.

For a complete copy of Report 2001-R-4 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.