Ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi wasn’t just a crook — he was running an incompetent shop. And it’s going to cost New Yorkers $15.3 million.
A federal judge ordered the state to pony up the money to a company that rebuilt a stretch of the West Side Highway — ruling that Grace Industries was shortchanged because of an audit by Hevesi’s office that falsely accused Grace of overbilling, sources told The Post.
“Hevesi basically called Grace a bunch of thieves, which is ironic,” said a source sniping at the 20 months Hevesi spent behind bars for his role in a pay-to-play pension-fund scandal.
The disgraced former pol — who still collects fat state and city pensions worth more than $160,000 a year — said Grace had overbilled the state by $3.3 million.
“That amount of overbilling certainly appears intentional,” he said when issuing the audit in 2005.
But Judge Carla Craig slammed that claim, ruling in December that the audit was conducted by unqualified staffers.
“. . . [T]he auditors who conducted the review had minimal experience auditing public construction contracts,” Craig wrote.
“Overwhelming evidence was presented at trial demonstrating that the OSC [Office of the State Comptroller] audit team . . . failed to take the necessary steps to ensure that its findings were accurate.”
Hevesi’s audit claimed the company — which started the $54 million project in 1998 and wrapped it up in January 2003 — submitted inflated claims for unemployment insurance and workers-compensation costs and materials.
The state had agreed to pay Grace up to an additional $10 million for unexpected cost overruns but stopped payments based on Hevesi’s audit — which eventually forced Grace into bankruptcy.
The company in 2007 filed suit in Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn for $10.8 million plus interest and legal fees.
Craig approved a settlement in which the state has to pay the company, now known as GII, $10.5 million in April and the balance a year later.
GII lawyer C. Nathan Dee called it ”a fair settlement.” Hevesi couldn’t be reached for comment.