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SRP Direct Billing & Cost Recovery Important Notice on State Auditor's Report

 

Important Notice on State Auditor’s Report

The New Jersey State Legislature’s Office of Legislative Services (OLS) recently conducted an audit of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Site Remediation Program’s funds including its automated Direct Billing System. The audit revealed that for the past 10 years or so, DEP had not billed a large number of parties for oversight services rendered. OLS also identified several areas where modifications are needed to improve the effectiveness of the billing process. The recommendations of the audit report can be found at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislativepub/Auditor/42086.pdf. [pdf 781 Kb]

Based on these findings, the Site Remediation & Waste Management Program will be immediately implementing the following actions:

  1. The Program will bill all entities who received oversight services and were never billed. The Program began sending bills for previously unbilled oversight services in December 2006. It will continue issuing these bills until all entities identified as never having been billed for oversight costs have been contacted. If you received oversight services in the past and have not yet been charged, you should receive a bill in the near future. DEP will not issue No Further Action (NFA) letters until these balances are paid in full.
  2. The DEP will no longer issue NFA letters to parties for services rendered that have not paid or have a history of being delinquent in paying their bills. NFAs will be withheld until overdue balances are paid.

Prior to the review/audit, DEP had initiated a redesign of the existing billing system. The redesign of the system is completed and the construction of the new system is underway. We expect to have the new system operating by the end of 2007. The new Direct Billing System will include the following changes.

  1. Interest will be charged on unpaid oversight bills. The interest rate will be determined by the New Jersey Department of Treasury and will be adjusted annually.
  2. The indirect cost rate will be updated annually based on a figure determined by an independent Certified Public Accountant. Homeowners and developers will continue to be exempt from paying the indirect cost rate under the new system.

If you have any questions, please contact the Direct Billing and Cost Recovery Section at (609) 633-0701.