The new Broward County Inspector General just issued a report blasting the total mis-management of a County run small business certification program designed to give County contracts a local preference. Only local government could create a $750,000 fiscal fiasco like this (or State or Federal Government.).
I can't stop - there is a basic management rule cited by Ronald Reagan - "Trust but verify", but these county managers trusted, but didn't verify the vendors' true eligibility for local government contracts.
Best quotes:
“The OIG determined that at least $750,000 in public funds, and in all probability a lot more has been misspent as a result of gross mismanagement by the OESBD,’’ Scott said Friday. “Our office is going to work with county government to make sure this doesn’t happen.’’
In one instance, the Inspector General found that a county vendor, Everytrade International Company, was awarded 37 county contracts worth nearly $750,000 since June 2007. At least 35 of those contracts required the vendor to be certified as a Small Business Enterprise, which gives the designated company exclusive access to certain county contracts and preference in the procurement process.
But according to the Inspector General, Everytrade International is actually a brokerage with negligible business space, no inventory, no warehouse and no full-time employees other than its owner, Jose de la Riva Aguero.
And more:
The Inspector General’s report also singled out Norman Taylor, director of the county’s OESBD for improperly certifying brokers to participate in the SBE program.
“The OESB has failed to develop suitable guidelines addressing certification requirements for applicants; failed to ensure that those guidelines which were established were fairly and consistently applied to all vendors; and ignored evidence that brokers were exploiting their SBE certifications,’’ the report states. “In addition, the OESBD’s documentation and record keeping practices have been inadequate, further hampering enforcement and oversight of the SBE certification process.’’
Read the details here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/16/2549235/broward-inspector-general-finds.html
This kind of reminds me of the Lake County fiasco regarding house renovation grants when the "program manager" was left unsupervised and gave grants to relatives, out of county vendors, etc.
The Broward County Administrator should also be held accountable for not making sure that proper management control processes were in place, and verified. But the article doesn't mention any such sanctions.
vj
