Skid Marks
State puts firm on shelf for now
Accounting irregularities at PBS&J caused overcharges on numerous highway contracts
June 06, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
The Texas Department of Transportation has stopped granting new contracts to a Florida engineering company that has overcharged the state and clients nationwide because of accounting irregularities.
Amadeo Saenz, the agency's engineering director, told PBS&J in a May 23 letter to the company's Dallas office that it would fall out of consideration for any new contracts until further notice. In addition, the department will not issue any additional work authorizations to the company on existing contracts, meaning in-progress projects could eventually be shifted to other construction companies or delayed.
PBS&J is overseeing three Austin-area toll roads and doing engineering and design work on other road projects statewide.
The state Transportation Department has been in negotiations with PBS&J for months to recover overcharges stemming from by suspected theft by the company's former chief financial officer and two other Miami employees. W. Scott DeLoach, the former chief financial officer, resigned in March 2005 and has admitted to authorities his role in the misappropriation of funds, company president Todd Kenner said Monday.
The accounting improprieties had the effect of increasing what is called an overhead rate, or multiplier, in the construction industry. That multiplier is applied to base rates for engineering and design services to determine billings to clients.
Officials with the agency could not say Monday how much the state may have been overcharged. But Saenz, in a May 24 memo to his chief engineers in the department's districts around the state, said the overcharges had run from as early as 2000 to the present.
Kenner said the company had hired an independent accounting firm since DeLoach's departure and has calculated a new and lower overhead rate. He predicted that the state and PBS&J would settle their differences shortly.
"Both parties are working for a final resolution by the end of June," Kenner said. PBS&J has about 3,900 employees — 800 in Texas — in 75 U.S. locations, he said. The company has about 40 active contracts with the state Transportation Department.
PBS&J is the general engineering contractor for the Central Texas Turnpike Project. The $2.5 billion, 66-mile project began in 2003 and should wrap up next year with the opening of Texas 130, Texas 45 North and an extension of Loop 1 (MoPac Boulevard).
Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the Transportation Department, said the suspen- sions will not delay the project.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com
Accounting irregularities at PBS&J caused overcharges on numerous highway contracts
June 06, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
The Texas Department of Transportation has stopped granting new contracts to a Florida engineering company that has overcharged the state and clients nationwide because of accounting irregularities.
Amadeo Saenz, the agency's engineering director, told PBS&J in a May 23 letter to the company's Dallas office that it would fall out of consideration for any new contracts until further notice. In addition, the department will not issue any additional work authorizations to the company on existing contracts, meaning in-progress projects could eventually be shifted to other construction companies or delayed.
PBS&J is overseeing three Austin-area toll roads and doing engineering and design work on other road projects statewide.
The state Transportation Department has been in negotiations with PBS&J for months to recover overcharges stemming from by suspected theft by the company's former chief financial officer and two other Miami employees. W. Scott DeLoach, the former chief financial officer, resigned in March 2005 and has admitted to authorities his role in the misappropriation of funds, company president Todd Kenner said Monday.
The accounting improprieties had the effect of increasing what is called an overhead rate, or multiplier, in the construction industry. That multiplier is applied to base rates for engineering and design services to determine billings to clients.
Officials with the agency could not say Monday how much the state may have been overcharged. But Saenz, in a May 24 memo to his chief engineers in the department's districts around the state, said the overcharges had run from as early as 2000 to the present.
Kenner said the company had hired an independent accounting firm since DeLoach's departure and has calculated a new and lower overhead rate. He predicted that the state and PBS&J would settle their differences shortly.
"Both parties are working for a final resolution by the end of June," Kenner said. PBS&J has about 3,900 employees — 800 in Texas — in 75 U.S. locations, he said. The company has about 40 active contracts with the state Transportation Department.
PBS&J is the general engineering contractor for the Central Texas Turnpike Project. The $2.5 billion, 66-mile project began in 2003 and should wrap up next year with the opening of Texas 130, Texas 45 North and an extension of Loop 1 (MoPac Boulevard).
Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the Transportation Department, said the suspen- sions will not delay the project.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Tuesday, June 06, 2006
<< Home