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A Washington state audit found $17 million in questionable spending for the $188 million abandoned Columbia River Crossing project to build a new Interstate 5 bridge to Vancouver.
(The Associated Press)
The Washington State Auditor's Office has found more than $17 million in questionable and excessive payments among the $188 million paid for the aborted Columbia River Crossing.
Most of that $17 million – about $12.3 million – was listed as questionable because the approximately 30 subcontractors that collected the payments did not submit proper overhead and profit markup documentation to the general contractor, David Evans and Associates.
Chris Cortines, a principal performance auditor with the Washington Auditor’s Office who led the CRC audit, said the subcontractors’ markups could have been acceptable. But the state lacks the documentation to be sure.
“WSDOT should never have accepted that kind of arrangement,” Cortines said. But this long after the fact determining whether the $12.3 million was proper is impossible.
Washington backed out of the I-5 bridge and freeway project last year. Oregon attempted to keep the project alive on its own. But the Legislature refused to go along and the mega-project died when the short session ended in March.
The vast majority of the CRC contracts examined checked out, Cortines said. The overall spending level of $188 million was near the norm given how far along it was at the time work halted last month.
Given the initial project budget of $3.5 billion, the CRC had spent roughly 5 percent and had gotten through environmental review and preliminary engineering and was entering final design. “Based on the construction life cycle, this looks about right,” Cortines said.
The audit determined the CRC spent another $1.45 million it deemed "excessive" to David Evans, its Portland-based general contractor.
Evans in 2006 demanded it be paid a 4 percent markup on all sub-contractor and consultant charges. In effect, Evans argued it was entitled to a cut on all jobs it subcontracted out equal to 4 percent of the total contract to cover the cost of the paperwork and hassle.
The states agreed even though they had already signed a contract with Evans that made no mention of such a markup. “WSDOT acknowledges it had no legal obligation to pay it,” the audit said.
The audit also deemed questionable $400,000 the CRC paid to its Seattle public relations consultant EnviroIssues. For one contract period, the firm never submitted proper paperwork on its labor rate, Cortines said.
The Washington Legislature last year called for the audit to be performed.
-- Jeff Manning