First off, this is a throwaway account so as not to divulge my own identity. Think of this as a "friend of a friend" type of scenario.
There was an incident a while back where a hole was made in drywall during a mess event, and now the time has come to fix the damage. We are in a heritage building, so obviously PWGSC has to be involved and it cannot just be fixed by one of the numerous general contractors, drywallers, or civil engineers within the unit. The hole would require two sheets of drywall to be replaced, and PWGSC's quote totaled $2600. We asked for an itemized quote, and magically the total jumped up to $3100, of which $2600 was "disbursements". Naturally, this did not pass the sniff test from the many engineers and contractors that we have. Their estimate (and remember, these are their trades) was that it was a $500 job. Despite trying to be fiscally responsible, the unit authorized the repair (at $3100), issued a fin code, and essentially ordered us to pay for it with our mess money (non public funds).
My questions are two fold - first off, is that even allowed? Nobody has formally been charged and we are just being handed a bill, which we know to be outrageously overpriced and we do not have such funds in our account: Essentially, all further mess events have to be cancelled, next years funds have to be garnished to pay for it, and we might even have to do a special levy to make ends meet. Given how the bill will be payable 30 days after work completion, we will most likely have to take out some sort of loan in order to pay.
Second of all, the threat was that the mess committee would be fired by higher and one would be imposed upon the mess if the mess did not start marching in lock step. Is this kosher? I know the mess committee serves at the leisure of the CO, but can one be imposed upon a mess without votes from it's membership?
Thank you for any clarification, can take this to PM if need be.
There was an incident a while back where a hole was made in drywall during a mess event, and now the time has come to fix the damage. We are in a heritage building, so obviously PWGSC has to be involved and it cannot just be fixed by one of the numerous general contractors, drywallers, or civil engineers within the unit. The hole would require two sheets of drywall to be replaced, and PWGSC's quote totaled $2600. We asked for an itemized quote, and magically the total jumped up to $3100, of which $2600 was "disbursements". Naturally, this did not pass the sniff test from the many engineers and contractors that we have. Their estimate (and remember, these are their trades) was that it was a $500 job. Despite trying to be fiscally responsible, the unit authorized the repair (at $3100), issued a fin code, and essentially ordered us to pay for it with our mess money (non public funds).
My questions are two fold - first off, is that even allowed? Nobody has formally been charged and we are just being handed a bill, which we know to be outrageously overpriced and we do not have such funds in our account: Essentially, all further mess events have to be cancelled, next years funds have to be garnished to pay for it, and we might even have to do a special levy to make ends meet. Given how the bill will be payable 30 days after work completion, we will most likely have to take out some sort of loan in order to pay.
Second of all, the threat was that the mess committee would be fired by higher and one would be imposed upon the mess if the mess did not start marching in lock step. Is this kosher? I know the mess committee serves at the leisure of the CO, but can one be imposed upon a mess without votes from it's membership?
Thank you for any clarification, can take this to PM if need be.
