Yesterday, your friendly, neighborhood Comptroller Scott Stringer denied a settlement involving Hewlett-Packard's work on the modernization of our 911 system. The failed deal was penned during the last days of the Bloomberg administration, but, to Stringer, it didn't force HP to give back nearly enough to the city in terms of what the printer-friendly titan actually owed us.

From 2005 to 2012, the company received $350 million from the city to get the job done. This amount, according to two separate audits, was way more than the city bargained for, evoking suspicions of fraud. It's just now a question of how much.

The first audit in June 2012, conducted by former Comptroller and permanent campaigner John Liu, found $160 million of "possibly fraudulent" charges on behalf of HP. Mind you, CityTime had just been in the headlines the year before, so the city, especially John Liu, was on red alert with its contracts. His office argued HP used the city coffers like an ATM for hundreds of subcontractors on the project, and office workers were given the same salaries of software engineers assigned to the pet project.

But then-Mayor Bloomberg didn't buy it, so city officials hired the consulting firm KPMG to conduct another audit. (FYI: the modernization project had been handed over to Northrop Grumman by this point). This time around, his administration found a hefty chunk of $24 million in the billing that HP probably didn't need to charge us. But strangely enough, the settlement Bloomberg's people made with the company later on only called for $6 million in compensation, a quarter of what was found in the private audit they pulled together. What gives?

That's the question Stringer is now asking. "I believe there should be a full review of the issues around Hewlett-Packard’s 911 contract," Stringer said in a statement. "We must know all the facts before resolving a dispute of this magnitude with a vendor that has cost the city millions of dollars."

In other words, another audit is in order, although Stringer has said any company, no matter its size, should always pay back in full. Damn straight, Scottie.

HP has not immediately responded to comment.