In these tough economic times--especially for Florida's public schools--every dime counts.
That's where auditors come in...to find every last dime. And Broward County Schools are missing quite a few.
Seems the South Florida school system was "...ripped off to the tune of more than three-quarters of a million dollars by two contractors that performed unnecessary work or submitted inflated bills for repairs made to portable classrooms damaged by Hurricane Wilma."
More on the contractor later. More on who the the contractor hired to lobby on their behalf right now.
Guess who.
Yep. You guessed it. Smashed Frog's favorite Florida lobbyist: Ron Book.
Per the Sun Sentinel:
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The district auditors' report, which will be finalized next week, calls for investigations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as state authorities.
The Sun Sentinel obtained a copy of the auditors' draft report, which also recommends the district demand a $765,608 refund from AshBritt Inc., a national disaster recovery company based in Pompano Beach, and one of the contractors scrutinized.
"There were clear signs of coercion and falsified documentation to facilitate the approvals and ultimately the recommendation to process payments to AshBritt, Inc.," the 48-page report from the auditors says. "Additionally, we believe the final documents submitted for payment were falsified and inflated."
The contractor's rebuttal?
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"If anyone can show me where I did anything that was unscrupulous, that was remotely unprofessional in the way I conducted business… I will absolutely refund the school board their money," Perkins said in an interview. "I'll take the check to them myself."
The auditors' report says that after Hurricane Wilma swept across Broward County on Oct. 24, 2005, the school district hired C&B Services, a Texas-based contractor, to repair 84 portable classrooms, but the company over-billed the district by inflating lodging and food costs, double-billing for numerous repairs and doing unnecessary work.
The auditors said a district employee refused to pay C&B after noticing that the company lacked the required license and was billing at twice the normal rate.
At that point, the auditors said, AshBritt, which has the required license, asserted that it was the actual contractor, and that C&B was working for it. AshBritt then submitted bills on behalf of the Texas company and was ultimately paid.
Perkins, the AshBritt CEO, said C&B was licensed to do the work it performed and that it was also covered by AshBritt's general contractor license. According to Perkins, his own company has done an estimated $1.5 billion worth of disaster recovery and management work nationwide in the past 10 years.
According to the audit, less than two weeks after Wilma, on Nov. 2, 2005, Garretson met with two representatives of C&B Services, two other school district officials and lobbyist Ron Book. Throughout the district, roofs on portable classrooms damaged by the storm needed to be repaired or replaced. Water-logged walls, books and floors in the units needed to cleaned and dried so mold wouldn't grow.
Garretson ordered his staff to expedite paperwork on a $1 million purchase order so the Texas company could start working to repair the classrooms, the audit said. After C&B started sending its bills, a district employee sent an e-mail to supervisors telling them that the district was being charged at twice the industry norm for replacing the roofs, the auditors said. Staff members later sounded the alarm over the company's lack of a license. As some employees of the Broward school district were voicing concern over possible fraud, the auditors said, "it became a possibility that... others were trying to potentially cover it up." In the interview, Perkins of AshBritt said it was his business that contacted the school district first, and that it brought in the Texas company later. He said he may have had Book contact the school district, but that he could not remember "how it went down." Book could not be reached to comment.
According to the auditors, on Jan. 5, 2006, AshBritt received a purchase order from the district to do $3.1 million in Wilma-related work. By then, C&B Services was 11 days away from completing its job.
Perhaps it is Ron Book shouldn't be allowed within a certain distance of a school. But again, he's not talking....
Keep an eye on this story, Froggers.
Read more here and here.
