"Broward says airport consultants exaggerated work by minority firms"

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Broward says airport consultants exaggerated work by minority firms
By Scott Wyman 
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel


Broward County officials accused consultants overseeing the renovation
of one of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport's four
terminals Tuesday of exaggerating how much work they have shared with
minority subcontractors and said they may fire the firm.

The engineering team headed by Pierce Goodwin Alexander & Linville Inc.
promised to give 20 percent of its $8 million deal to minority firms
when county commissioners chose them for the job. But an investigation
by county auditors has concluded the company "substantially overstated"
how much work it had doled out so far.

The audit said the company misstated how many minority firms were on the
job and whether they had been paid.

Minority contracting has been a major concern in county government since
a 2001 study showed that businesses owned by minorities and women fell
far short of receiving a fair share of the millions of dollars in
contracts awarded each year. County commissioners were livid Tuesday at
the audit findings and said they will seek to dismiss the engineering
firm when they discuss the report again in two weeks.

"This is fraud, out and out fraud," said Commissioner John Rodstrom, the
board's liaison to the airport. "It's a scam. You can't call it anything
else. They just made up these numbers."

County Auditor Evan Lukic said it does not appear the county was
overbilled for the architectural work, but rather he said the minority
numbers were inflated when other, non-minority firms were actually doing
more of the work.

Pierce Goodwin and its partners, Zyscovich Inc. and ADP International
Engineering Inc., were hired in 2002 to draw up renovation plans for
Terminal 4, the international terminal that serves Spirit Airlines as
well as airlines flying to the Bahamas, Caribbean and Canada. The
renovation is part of a broader expansion that also includes
construction of a second major runway and new gates.

Commissioner Lori Parrish demanded the audit after growing suspicious
about the minority contracting numbers initially submitted to the board
earlier this year. She said she called several of the minority firms
that Pierce Goodwin listed as doing work and discovered that they had no
involvement in the project at that time.

According to the audit, Pierce Goodwin told the airport that it had paid
minority subcontractors $121,533 for work done between July and November
2003 when it really had paid $32,777.

In addition, the company's initial reports showed 11 of 14 minority
subcontractors as being paid when only two reported receiving any money.
Nine of the minority subcontractors listed on Pierce Goodwin's invoices
had not begun any work on the airport project, the audit found.

Executives at Pierce Goodwin could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The audit also raises questions about the oversight by the company in
charge of the overall airport expansion project, URS Corp. URS was
supposed to review the invoices submitted by Pierce Goodwin and
regularly verify how it was doing on meeting the minority contracting
goals, but auditors said URS did not follow those requirements.

It's the second time that URS' oversight has come into question.

Last year, URS acknowledged it had been rubberstamping invoices
submitted by the engineering firm that was supposed to inspect the
quality of construction work on a new passenger terminal, roadway system
and parking garage. A South Florida Sun-Sentinel review had found that
firm, Qore Property Sciences, may have been paid for hundreds of hours
of work not covered by its contract.

Lukic wants county commissioners to take away URS' responsibility for
reviewing invoices. Instead, he wants the airport staff to handle that
job directly.


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