The
Bloomberg administration has announced that it is immediately stopping the disbursement
of funds to a Bronx, NY non-profit firm that was building a Hip-Hop museum, due
to an unsatisfactory audit performance.The
Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp., which recently received a $4.5 million grant
from the city council for construction of a multi-use building that would include
the Hip-Hop museum, was barred from receiving $335,000 of a separate $355,000
grant approved in June because of the red-flagging of the group’s Vendex
form."The
money is frozen," a city official told the New York Post. The
Vendex form is a financial background questionnaire every city contractor is required
to fill out prior to construction of new buildings. The
Northeast Bronx group had their Vendex form rejected after an audit of the company
was completed last week, preventing them to receive any further contracts for
building purposes.Brad
Maione, a spokesman for state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said the last filing
on record for the group was completed in 1997, and no other tax forms had been
filed since then, almost a decade ago.