MALONE: HAS ANYONE EVER BEEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION MESS, OR DO WE JUST GIVE THEM NEW CONTRACTS?

RUTGERS STADIUM TO BE BUILT BY CONTRACTOR FIRED FROM STATE SCHOOL BUILDING PROJECTS 

Assemblyman Joseph Malone today said it is stunning that Rutgers University would turn to a contractor who has been fired by the state from almost two dozen school construction projects and questioned whether the state ever plans on holding people accountable for the mess that became of the school construction program.

“How a state funded university can justify hiring a contractor that was fired, by the state, from school construction projects for faulty work is baffling,” said Malone, R-Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean and Mercer. “This once again raises the question I have been asking since the school construction scandal broke in 2005: Will anyone actually be held accountable for this debacle?”

According to news reports, just weeks after being chosen by Rutgers University to oversee a $102 million expansion of the Rutgers football stadium, a Rhode Island-based contractor, Gilbane Building Company, was fired by state officials from 23 school construction projects.

The decision to fire Gilbane came after a year-long delay at a Neptune elementary school, when the school’s brick facade had to be torn down and rebuilt after mold was found in exterior walls. The state is suing Gilbane for the estimated $13 million it cost to remove the mold.

The state’s school construction program has been plagued by problems almost since its inception. In a 15-page report issued in April 2005 by Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper, the program was said to be “vulnerable to mismanagement, fiscal malfeasance, conflicts of interest and waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.”

Several efforts have been made to reform the program since that report, but problems persist.

“We have no idea exactly how much money has been wasted because of the abuse and mismanagement within this school construction program, but it is likely a staggering total,” Malone said. “Yet instead of holding people accountable, it seems like we are rewarding them with new contracts for state subsidized projects. Taxpayers who are struggling to make ends meet have every right to be outraged by these decisions.”

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