Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose

McHOSE SUGGESTS ASSEMBLY BUDGET COMMITTEE QUESTION BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES OFFICIALS

HAD REQUESTED SEPARATE HEARING LAST MONTH TO DISCUSS MYRIAD OF FINANCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES AT BPUJuly 26, 2006
Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose/973-726-0954
Assembly Republican Office/609-292-5339

McHOSE SUGGESTS ASSEMBLY BUDGET COMMITTEE QUESTION BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES OFFICIALS

HAD REQUESTED SEPARATE HEARING LAST MONTH TO DISCUSS MYRIAD OF FINANCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES AT BPU

Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose today called for the Assembly Budget Committee to schedule a special hearing at which they can question the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) about a number of scandals enveloping the agency including a scathing audit released yesterday about the clean energy program funding.

"After months of the agency keeping this audit under wraps, it has now been made public and it has revealed exactly what we feared," said McHose, R-Sussex, Morris and Hunterdon. "The clean energy program at BPU has become a pit of waste and mismanagement that is costing ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars."

At a Treasury Department hearing in early June, Republican members of the Assembly Budget Committee had requested a separate hearing for BPU. At the time Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Lou Greenwald had indicated he would be willing to have BPU come back at a later date to discuss these issues.

According to newspaper reports, an audit of the BPU's clean energy program which was released yesterday, found the clean energy program to be rife with waste and abuse. Among the problems alleged in the audit were the depositing of program funds in a bank account outside the state's financial systems with no controls; contracts being awarded with no competitive bidding or review process; and people being grossly overpaid for their work.

As a result of these problems, a career BPU employee filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging retaliation by BPU officials for his role in disclosing these questionable practices. That lawsuit has led to BPU and the state hiring four private law firms to defend the agency and its officials.

"The budget committee should now have an opportunity to ask questions about this highly critical audit of its spending practices," McHose said. "If we couldn't take the time to thoroughly question BPU officials in early June, certainly the time has now come for those questions to be answered."

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