Sacramento PL Sues Former Contractor for $1.3 Million
Lynn Blumenstein & Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal, 11/2/2007
The Sacramento Public Library, CA, filed a lawsuit October 30 asking for more than $1.3 million in restitution and damages from local contractor Hagginwood Services, Inc. for payments made to Hagginwood between 2004 and 2007. As Library Journal reported, the maintenance and repair company is under investigation by state and federal law enforcement agencies after a library probe into Hagginwood’s billing practices revealed overcharges amounting to $650,000.The company is alleged to have collected invoices from subcontractors that did the work, applied markups from 64 percent to 324 percent, and billed the library on its company letterhead. Standard accounting practices were not followed, and original invoices were destroyed—both violations of the library contract. In a statement released by the library, Sacramento Public Library director Anne Marie Gold said, “We are committed to doing whatever is possible to recover the taxpayers’ money.”
SPL faced intense public criticism for not catching the overcharges sooner. The statement goes on to say, "Sacramento Public Library officials, including the library’s governing board, have developed and are implementing a stringent set of safeguards to ensure such abuse of a public contract cannot occur at the library again."
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