Top officials for the District of Columbia sent out under- or unqualified inspectors to monitor construction contracts and left key inspecting positions vacant for months at a time, allowing costs to spiral out of control and quality to lapse, inspector general memos The Examiner has obtained state.
Left unchecked, the lack of control in key city agencies will expose millions of public dollars “to unnecessary risks” of waste or abuse, inspector general auditors concluded.
The auditors’ comments were written in draft memos prepared for, but not sent to, the heads of the Office of Contracting and Procurement and to the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Officials at both those agencies refused comment Monday.
The inspector general opened an audit after a raft of complaints came in about the quality of work supervised by The Jair Lynch Companies, a private D.C. construction manager given $30 million to oversee construction of city parks, pools and gyms.
The projects “have been plagued by construction delays, substandard part and workmanship and cost growth,” one management alert states.
The agencies also left “key engineer positions” unfilled for up to two years at a time, leaving no one to monitor the work, allowing costs to spiral and preventing the city from enforcing quality control measures, another managerial alert states.
Up to 60 percent of monitoring jobs were vacant during the time that the Jair Lynch Companies worked on the city recreations center, the second alert states.
“Over the next five years, almost $500 million in construction and renovation contracts will be awarded for capital projects in four departments,” the second alert states. “Numerous contracts will be awarded and executed without being subjected to internal or external audits or reviews and expose the District to unnecessary risks.”
Jair Lynch is named for its founder, a two-time Olympic gymnast. He defended his company’s work.
“I am actually very proud of the work that we did,” he told The Examiner on Monday. “We were able to raise the bar in terms of how to deliver projects.”
Costs went up because it was “a fluid situation” and the city ordered changes to construction design right until the end, Lynch said. If there were delays, they were due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Jair Lynch Companies has received more than $100 million in city business over the past decade, most of it through a set-aside program designed to help local small businesses.
The company has powerful politicalallies, including Deputy Mayor Neil Albert, Mayor Adrian Fenty’s top construction official. Albert, who ran the Department of Parks and Recreation while Jair Lynch worked on the recreation center contract, has recommended the company for a share in the $2.3 billion school modernization plan.
Fitness centers unfit?
Problems at D.C. recreation centers under Jair Lynch contracts:
» Takoma Park Aquatic Center: Filtration system malfunctioned
» Georgetown Recreation Center: Sewer lines backed up into the pool
» Southeast Tennis and Learning Center: World War II-era concrete slab found under ground, delaying project
