6 JULY 4, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Head of GRYC denies audit fi ndings
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
The executive director of the Greater
Ridgewood Youth Council (GRYC)
— one of the largest nonprofit
youth programs in Queens — is
refuting the results of an audit that state
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released
last week accusing the organization of
giving its summer employees duplicate
compensation, taking prohibited
enrollment fees from parents and hiring
its own executives’ children.
The audit is part of the comptroller’s
eff ort to evaluate the level of oversight
that city Department of Youth and
Community Development (DYCD)
exercises over the local organizations
that it contracts with to run city youth
and community summer programs.
From July 1, 2015 through Oct. 10, 2017
GRYC received 27 contracts with DYCD
worth $13.9 million to provide summer
employment and aft er school services.
“We found management lapses that
undermine the intended benefi ts of these
youth programs,” DiNapoli wrote in the
report. “Young men and women looking
for work or for an aft erschool program
were shortchanged. DYCD needs to take
immediate steps to improve oversight
and accountability.”
In total, the comptroller identifi ed at
least $87,733 in inappropriate expenses.
But GRYC’s President Bob Monahan,
claims that the report is misleading.
He hopes that DYCD’s review of the
comptroller’s audit in the next 90-days
will provide context and evidence that
will exonerate many of the claims made
against his organization.
Monahan is not alone in pushing
back on the report. GRYC was joined
by the DYCD in refuting the majority of
the comptroller’s fi ndings in its initial
response to the audit in February. The
agency’s responses can be found in
the fi nal six pages of the comptroller’s
report.
“The GRYC contests and disagrees
with most fi ndings while continuing to
cooperate with DYCD as they prepare
their fi nal response to OSC,” Monahan
wrote to QNS in a statement. “I stand by
everything this agency does.”
GRYC’s summer youth employment
program provides jobs to young men
and women, ages 14 to 24, who earn
hourly wages from DYCD for up to 25
hours a week. The comptroller’s report
found that GRYC paid for employees to
work at least 1,344.5 overlapping hours,
meaning individuals worked the same
hours, on the same dates, in two statefunded
programs, creating at least
$19,239 in duplicate costs.
The Greater Ridgewood Youth Council Photo via Google Maps
Monahan maintains that a clerical
mistake led the comptroller’s offi ce to
believe this. He said that his summer
employees work for the city for 25 hours
at minimum wage, “but they work for
me aft erwards because my camps go 45
hours.”
“They get paid separately for those 20
hours, which is diff erent. No one was
ever double paid. It’s a clerical issue,”
he said.
In response to the duplicate
compensation charges, DYCD said it
will conduct its own audit of GRYC, will
take appropriate steps to recover any
duplicative costs that it can identify.
The comptroller’s audit found
evidence that made them suspicious
that GRYC’s enrollment process favored
some students over others and that it
required students to pay to enroll in the
free program. Nine of 19 parents who
responded to the auditor’s survey said
that they paid GRYC fees — ranging from
$100 to $900 — to enroll their children.
Monahan said that the results of
the survey stemmed from confusion
on behalf of the parents. He does host
a fundraiser every February, but it
is not required to participate in the
programs.
Aft er DYCD conducts its own internal
review of expenditures and enrollment,
it may take steps to recoup funding from
the GRYC.
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