Nine private contractors for the Parks Department have been arrested for trying to cover up under-payments to their workers by paying bribes totalling $18,500 to an undercover agent posing as a Parks official, authorities said yesterday.
The Department of Investigation disclosed that it has been conducting a covert operation at the Parks Department since 2005 because of concerns that the practice might be widespread.
“Nine is not one or two. Nine would seem to demonstrate that for some this is just the cost of doing business. You get the contract, don’t pay the prevailing wage and just pay the bribe to mask that,” said DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.
Private contractors who work on public projects have to pay what is known as the prevailing wage even if they hire non-union employees.
Officials said they found one contractor paying a laborer working six days a week $10 an hour. The prevailing wage for that title was $32.44 an hour. Benefits raise that to $50 an hour.
According to DOI, the nine contractors paid bribes of $1,000 to $5,000 to the undercover between 2005 and 2006 to lift stop payment orders that had been placed on their contracts because of prevailing wage violations.
Each of the busted contractors has been charged with bribery and faces up to seven years behind bars.