New York’s “Build It Back” program, intended to restore the city’s housing stock after 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, has taken a beating in the press for what critics call mismanagement, ineffectiveness, and overspending. Among others, fingers have been pointed at URS, an engineering, design, and construction firm and federal contractor. The city has disputed some of the bills it has received from URS, but now, has agreed to pay $2 million in a settlement, according to a report from DNAinfo (see: “City to Pay $2M to Build it Back Contractor Despite Shoddy Work Record,” by Katie Honan).
“URS was paid $3.5 million in July of 2013 for its work documenting and reaching out to thousands of applicants — but a later investigation found they hired unskilled workers who didn’t meet the requirements, sent along thousands of incomplete applications and sent a hefty bill for unfinished work,” DNAinfo reported. “In a 2015 audit, Comptroller Scott Stringer found that URS helped contribute to the mismanagement of the city’s post-Sandy recovery programs, calling the entire system ‘a case study in dysfunction.'”
But facing a fight from URS over the company’s original payment demand of $5.4 million, the city agreed to pay the company $2 million on October 31, DNAinfo reported.
