A consulting firm for the city's Administration for Children's Services is slashing its fees, a move that will save taxpayers millions of dollars.
"I think it's the right response to a lot of questions we've pushed forward," Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland said. "This is a company that is putting the young people of our city ahead of the dollar sign."
Last month, the I-Team was the first to report the staggering amounts — as much as $550 per hour — Kroll Associates, the private firm tasked with monitoring the ACS, was charging to fix the embattled agency, which is under fire for failing to prevent the deaths of numerous children. The I-Team obtained a copy of the first bill submitted to the city.
Kroll was the solution ordered by Gov. Cuomo. After reviewing the first series of invoices submitted by Kroll to ACS, the I-Team learned that every time the city’s new consultants talked about fixing the agency, it cost taxpayers money. Just one meeting in Albany on March 7, including travel and the review of necessary documents, cost taxpayers $8,187.00.
The first bill showed that Kroll had a dozen consultants on the case were charging between $285 and $550 per hour. But now, the top two executives have agreed to work for free and the rest will charge no more than $275 an hour.
"Kroll is committed to its client and helping protect at risk children in New York and does not want its fees to distract from this critical goal," Kroll's spokesperson Nicole M. Cueto said in a statement to NBC 4 New York.
The new fees are retroactive, meaning Kroll's first bill of $51,418.25 has been slashed in half.
