FOLLOWING WEITZMAN AUDITS, NYS COMPTROLLER
TO INVESTIGATE NASSAU SANITATION DISTRICTS

New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi today announced a series of audits to review potential abuses of the pension system by six Nassau sanitary districts, as well as a comprehensive audit of Sanitary District #1 in the Five Towns area. The audits come in response to information uncovered in Comptroller Weitzman's recent audits of five sanitary districts. To read the State Comptroller's news release announcing the audits, click here: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/oct05/102005.htm.

The Albany audits come on the heels of an announcement last week by Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon that he will begin a criminal investigation of management at Sanitary District #1, following the D.A.'s review of Comptroller Weitzman's audit of the district.

"Last month," said Comptroller Weitzman, "when my office issued our audits of the five sanitary districts, we felt strongly that the 'red flags' raised by our investigations strongly suggested the possibility of fraud. Accordingly, we referred these findings to the Nassau County District Attorney and State Comptroller Hevesi. We are pleased that both offices have launched their own investigations.

"The waste uncovered at these sanitary districts occurred because, prior to these audits, there has been almost no public oversight of these operations. It is past time for these multi-million dollar public agencies to be run efficiently and in the taxpayers' interest.