Office for People With Developmental Disabilities

Preservation Fund Procurement Practices at Springbrook NY, Inc. (Follow-Up Report)

The State provides Preservation Funds for the maintenance and preservation of structures where services are made available to people with developmental disabilities. The Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) is responsible for distributing these funds to providers. Springbrook NY, Inc. is a not-for-profit provider that obtains Preservation Funds through a contract with two of OPWDD’s regional offices. In audit 2007-S-51, in response to allegations that improper bidding practices were being used by certain Springbrook employees, we reviewed the files for certain of Springbrook’s projects. We found that several fictitious bids had been created by Springbrook employees and these fictitious bids may have been used to steer work to certain vendors. We recommended that certain controls be strengthened at Springbrook and the two OPWDD regional offices, and we referred the matter to the Broome County District Attorney. When we followed up on these matters with OPWDD officials, we found that our recommendations had been implemented.

For a complete copy of Report 2010-F-13 click here.