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AUDITORS ASSAIL NAVY YARD PARK IN A NEW REPORT

AUDITORS ASSAIL NAVY YARD PARK IN A NEW REPORT
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April 16, 1982, Section B, Page 3Buy Reprints
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Two years after a city audit uncovered ''widespread fraud and mismanagement'' at an industrial park on the site of the former Brooklyn Navy Yard, a new audit has found questionable contract awards and other unremedied problems at the park.

City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin said yesterday that the findings showed the 265-acre park ''living from hand to mouth'' with no reserve fund, serious cash-flow problems and barely enough revenue to cover daily expenses.

''This thing is an economic disaster,'' Mr. Goldin said in an interview after releasing the latest report on the nonprofit Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, which manages the park.

He added, ''Not only was there mismanagement, not only was there thievery, but these people are going to start going into the tank.'' No One Brought to Trial

Mr. Goldin also complained that despite extensive documentation of check forgeries and other frauds in his office's 1980 audit of the industrial park, no one had been brought to trial.

James F. Capalino, the former Commissioner of General Services, said, ''One does not flush out a cesspool in six months' or a year's time.''

However, both he and Robert M. Litke, the present Commissioner, denied that there were any serious irregularities and said the financial problems were being solved.

The Navy Yard was turned over by the Government to the city in 1964 for $24 million. A nonprofit corporation, called the Commerce Labor Industry Corporation of Kings County, or CLICK, was formed in 1969 to operate the yard on a 99-year lease. However, it was slow to attract tenants and fell behind in its obligations.

The city seized the corporation's bank accounts and replaced its board in 1972. That board was in turn dismissed and a new one installed after the 1980 audit.

The latest audit questioned the selection of some of 10 consultants who were paid fees totaling $218,000 last year. Lease Was Renegotiated

The top consultant's award listed was $50,000 to Greiner Maltz & Company to renegotiate the lease of the Coastal Dry Dock and Repair Corporation. Mr. Capalino, who left city service Dec. 31 after two years as Commissioner, and Terrence Moan, deputy commissioner, said this had been done because the previous lease was excessively favorable to the corporation.

The audit said Coastal had owed the corporation $1 million in rent for which it had never been billed. Mr. Moan said that under the new lease Coastal had begun to pay the sum.

The auditors also cited the undocumented use of corporation cars, including one assigned to Richard Aniero, the corporation president. Mr. Aniero did not return telephone calls to his office. As a result of the 1980 audit, Charles LoCicero, the corporation's special projects and safety coordinator, was indicted in March 1981 on 192 counts of bribe-receiving, forgery and grand larceny. Salvatore Scarpa Sr., listed as an elevator contractor, was indicted on 14 counts of bribery, forgery and grand larceny. And Jerome Frank, described as a hot-dog vendor who had cashed large corporation checks, was indicted on 120 counts of forgery.

Ned Steele, a spokesman for District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, said that Mr. LoCicero was a fugitive and that the other cases were pending.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 3 of the National edition with the headline: AUDITORS ASSAIL NAVY YARD PARK IN A NEW REPORT. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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