Two years ago, the Washington State Auditor's Office issued a scathing performance audit on the Port of Seattle's contracting and construction management practices. That audit led to the U.S. Attorney's Office launching a two year probe into whether any Port of Seattle employees broke federal laws and should be indicted.
Last week, the Port announced that the feds have concluded their corruption and fraud investigation and will not be issuing any indictments.
The December 2007 performance audit led to the resignation of two employees and to seven employees being disciplined.
The Port has since created a Central Procurement Office headed by Nora Huey to make necessary changes in the Port's contracting practices.
Resources:
- To read the Seattle Times story from January 23, 2010 on the closing of the investigation, click here.
- December 2007 Performance Audit Report by State Auditor's Office
Posts
1 comment:
As a small minority business that has pretty much been undone by two POS projects i must say that this monster needs to be corraled somehow. The gotcha mentality of the mid level project managers is par for behavior. It is not possible for contractors and subcontractors to make any money on changes. The POS has managed to put everything including the kitchen sink in the general conditions box. This translates into a loss on changes. We are only left to expand our labor on line items in order to capture real costs on changes. When this tactic fails then changes are performed at a loss. PM's have no understanding how this affects the small businesses that are trying to maintain margins on POS projects. it is clear to me that only a larger more systemitized contractor can compete with a POS PM who want to make it his day to take apart a small business
Post a Comment