EDINBURG - An Edinburg plumber says he did thousands of dollars worth of work for Hidalgo County back in February. Now, he's looking for his money, and he called 5 ON YOUR SIDE for help. We started asking questions and found out the plumber isn't the only one waiting for the county to pay up.
Javier Tijerina runs Harvey's Plumbing in Edinburg. He says he's waiting for about $12,000. We asked him if anything like this has ever happened to him. He says, "Never, never, never. This has been the worst contractor I have ever had."
Tijerina has been in business for 10 years. He says, "I need to pay my subs and my materials as well, for that project that hasn't been paid for. $12,000 is a lot of money."
Tijerina says he did all of the work connected a building line to the city's sewer system. Tijerina worked for a company called CAS Companies. CAS South Texas General Manager Raymond Moses tells us he's also waiting for money. He says they are waiting on, "Close to a million dollars... from multiple projects."
CAS says they can't pay subcontractors like Tijerina until they get paid themselves. Moses says, "The auditors, they're used to working with numbers. Well now, they're having to deal with contracts, and the way we see it they're dealing with a different learning curve."
Hidlago County spokesperson Cari Lambrecht responded with a prepared statment: "The job of the auditor's office is to oversee the expenditure of taxpayer dollars and provide operational efficiency and financial accountability to the county. Invoices submitted properly are paid; however, documentation requirements for public projects are rigorous and purposefully detailed. Documentation about materials, sub-contractors, parts and man hours are required of all projects in order for invoices to be paid in a timely fashion."
Tijerina understands the county must be careful spending taxpayers' dollars, but he wonders how long audit reviews should really take. He says, "I'm not upset. I just want to get paid."
We will keep following the money and we will keep you updated.
