by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The company hired by the City to review the new Duval County Courthouse construction has audited the project, audited its own work for the City and now wants to be paid, the firm’s president told the mayor’s office this week.
Dennis Braasch, head of South Carolina-based Global Performance, answered questions raised by the City about the company’s billing. In a three-page letter sent to City Chief Operating Officer Dan Kleman, Braasch said the company erred in overcharging the City in its original bill.
Global Performance mistakenly charged the City twice for a plane ticket, billed the City for meals that exceeded daily allowances and omitted other expense vouchers, according to the letter. Braasch didn’t review the original bill and apologized for the errors. He added the mistakes had been fixed and the company now, “looked forward to your prompt payment.”
The City owes Global $320,000 for work done from June to September, according to Global. That’s $137,000 less than Global originally billed, an indication that the firm worked efficiently, said Braasch. The City has already paid about $150,000 to the firm for earlier audit work.
“We believe that this (the cost reduction) shows good stewardship in managing our cost during the support of your efforts to transition the project to a stable and clear path forward,” said Braasch in the letter.
Braasch credited his firm with helping the City gain control of a runaway construction budget. When Global first examined the project, it was budgeted for $232 million but careening wildly toward a $287 million total cost, said Braasch. The initial review also found the projected March 2007 completion date to be unrealistic. Global estimated a September finish, but that date has since been pushed back to at least late 2007.
Global identified ways to cut wasteful overlapping work from the project, trimming its budget and more clearly assigned duties and responsibilities among the project’s partners, said Braasch.
Global’s auditors were “disturbed” that the project team at the time did not tell the City that costs had exploded and deadlines delayed. The team included Skanska Dynamic Partners, Cannon Design and Jacobs, which has since left the project.
“This information was clearly identifiable and, most certainly, should have been known by the project team at the time of our audit,” said Braasch. “We believe that significant savings were
realized by the project as a result of our team’s efforts.”
Global Performance’s bill has been a source of contention between the mayor’s office and some City Council members. When Kleman and City
Policy Chief Steve Diebenow answered Council questions about the project during a September workshop, Council member Jerry Holland repeatedly questioned how much the City owed Global. Kleman said about $300,000.
Holland said he’d heard the
bill was approaching seven
figures.
Holland said Wednesday that someone in the administration told him the City might end
up owing Global about $1 million. The Council will likely ask
to audit the City-hired auditor,
he said.
“It’s hard to say we rely on
their statement of what the figures are in this project if we can’t even verify what we’re paying them,”
he said. “I want to take a look at their billing.”