Unpaid invoices totaling more than $260,000 restricted the District’s participation in a low-cost federal vehicle purchasing program, a new report reveals, forcing the city to the open market and costing it hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The District government was suspended from the General Services Administration’s AutoChoice Program in late 2002, thanks to an outstanding balance of $262,535 for multiple unpaid invoices dating as far back as 2001, according to a D.C. inspector general’s report. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer was responsible for the long-unpaid balance, according to the inspector general, and the issue wasn’t resolved until May of this year.
During the AutoChoice suspension, the Office of Contracting and Procurement’s Transportation and Specialty Equipment Commodity Group — the agency responsible for purchasing vehicles — was left only with the more expensive open market as an option.
For example, the commodity group was constrained to purchase 32 full-sized pick-up trucks through a bid process in early 2003, the inspector general reported. The city paid $940,032 on the open market, nearly $210,000 more than the AutoChoice price of $731,563.
Pamela Graham, the former chief financial officer for the government services cluster — now the interim CFO for D.C. public schools — said it took several years, and a task force of GSA and CFO staff, to resolve disagreements over the total amount owed for past purchases.
That reconciliation, she said, “was not as clean as it could be” and “took longer than anyone wanted it to.”
“On our side we would say an invoice was paid,” Graham said. “They would say they never received it.”
The pick-up truck purchase and subsequent loss was only a snapshot sample used for the inspection, said Ed Farley, deputy assistant inspector general for inspections and evaluations. Additional open-market vehicle purchases were made during the nearly four-year suspension period — likely costing the city much more.
“You have to replenish the fleet from time to time,” said Janis Bolt, contracting and procurement spokeswoman.
Ward 5 Council Member Vincent Orange, chairman of the Government Operations Committee, said he would add the AutoChoice issue to an upcoming oversight hearing on contracting and procurement.
