Deltona, FL - An audit of Deltona Water will begin soon. The Deltona City Commissioners gave approval to a contract for $191,437 with KPMG, piggy-backing on a state contract, during their regular meeting earlier this week. Mayor Heidi Herzberg said that the Citizens Water Committee, which was charged with coming up with the scope of the audit, was able to come up with a scope that would fit the budget of $200,000.
Herzberg said she pulled the item from the consent agenda on Monday in order to have a chance to clarify why the project was not put out for bid. She said she wants the process clarified so that some citizens who are critical of city government will not come back later, asking why it was not put out for bid. The reason the water audit contract was done this way is because the Citizens Water Committee made the decision to piggy back on the state contract. Herzberg said that this is legal and is done quite frequently.
It was decided to audit the water department earlier this year when it was determined that the Water Department was not generating enough revenue to sustain itself. There was discussion about raising water rates by 15 percent because, Herzberg says, the rates had not been increased for effectively 10 years. Of course, no one wanted the rate increase, which is when the Citizens Water Committee was formed. They were given a budget of $200,000, which is the amount cut from the state budget allotted for the water study. Herzberg says the Committee chose KPMG. The original scope they were looking for was way over budget. When they redid the scope, the contract amount came down to $191,437.
The contract calls for KPMG to provide bi-weekly status reports, detailing the following: progress to date, by task, for each bi-weekly reporting period, pending or resolved issues and deliverable schedule compliance, The entire process should take a little less than three months from the sigining of an engagement letter.
