After a U.S. Department of Interior audit showed that the Department of Public Works failed to use nearly $17 million in federal grants for the construction of wastewater treatment plants, local officials said they now have funds to begin work on one plant.
Acting Public Works Commissioner Wayne Callwood said Tuesday that $12 million from the V.I. Public Finance Authority has been made available to begin work on the Mangrove Lagoon Wastewater Treatment Plant on St. Thomas. The $12 million, plus $13.8 million in grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will bring the Mangrove Lagoon project to completion, Callwood said in a release.
The announcement by Callwood follows a recent Interior audit, which said that from 1984 through September 1999, Public Works had not used nearly $17 million in grant funds available for the construction of two wastewater treatment plants.
According to the audit, Public Works received a grant award and three amendments totaling $13.8 million for the design and construction of the lagoon wastewater treatment plant. At that point the local government had to pony up $200,000.
While the design of the wastewater treatment plant has been completed and approved by EPA, construction has not started. Because of the delays by Public Works to begin work, the Interior audit estimated that costs have increased from the initial grant amount of $8.9 million in September 1984 to about $30 million as of September 30, 1999.
To cover the balance left after EPA’s nearly $14 million in grants, the V.I. government, through the PFA, was forced to issue $16 million in bonds in May 1998, the audit said.
Callwood said, "The wastewater treatment plant project has been advertised, four contractors were selected and contracts have been signed. Preconstruction meetings are being held this week with contractors in the process of mobilization. Ground-breaking is slated for mid-November."
According to the audit, the EPA grants were not administered effectively because Public Works did not have a director to manage grant funding, nor did it have a staff "knowledgeable of the specific purposes of the grants, procedures to document the time charged to the grants, and sufficient coordination … to timely complete financial status reports and requests for reimbursement."
Callwood said the problems with the reporting of EPA grants will be rectified by hiring additional staff.
