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The FBI has joined another federal agency in a probe into escalating prices and contract bidding in Detroit's highly-touted demolition program, the Detroit Free Press reports.
“We are assisting,”an unnamed source told the Free Press. “We’re more of a background player at this point.”
In recent weeks, the investigative arm of the U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP, subpoenaed records from the Detroit Auditor General’s office, which is also investigating the demolition program, reports Joe Guillen and Tresa Baldas of the Freep report.
"The Detroit Land Bank has not been contacted by the FBI. But we will cooperate if at some point they do contact us," Land Bank spokesman Craig Fahle tells the paper, which reports:
Duggan’s blight elimination program has been under fire for rising demolition costs since last fall. The average cost to tear down a blighted home went from $8,500 to $10,000 under former Mayor Dave Bing to an average at one point of $16,400 under Duggan.
Detroit Auditor General Mark Lockridge recently told the Free Press that he was on a conference call with SIGTARP officials a couple months ago and believes the agency is interested in the rising costs under Duggan’s efforts and bidding practices in the early stages of the program.
“They are looking at why costs went up,” Lockridge said.
