Overview
From our sample of 20 payments for police details shown on contract quantity estimates (CQEs), we identified 1 payment that was not fully supported by hours shown on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s (MassDOT’s) daily field inspection reports (FIRs). The police invoices that corresponded to the CQE for this payment showed 24 more hours worked than the FIRs for the same dates, causing a possible overpayment of $1,200.
As a result, MassDOT cannot be certain it paid the correct amount in police detail costs related to this project.
Authoritative Guidance
According to a memo sent to us by the Project 605964 resident engineer,
The [resident engineer] would review the Police bills and compare them to hours recorded for details in the official FIR. Once complete the [resident engineer] would approve the invoices for payment by the [General] Contractor and log in the invoice into the excel workbook for Police Bills.
Reasons for Issue
MassDOT does not have a formal policy requiring its resident engineer to perform a full formal reconciliation of police detail hours on FIRs and those on invoices.
MassDOT officials told us that the FIRs probably showed fewer police detail hours than had been worked. They stated that they believed that the police bills were correct and MassDOT did not overpay for police details.
Recommendation
MassDOT should develop and implement a formal policy requiring its resident engineer to reconcile all police department invoices for police details to the FIRs that correspond to each CQE.
Auditee’s Response
As you are aware, the Report noted only one issue with the referenced project. Specifically, that a total of 24 hours of police detail time was not captured. As an initial matter, and as you are likely aware, the Millbury Bridge Project was incredibly complex with a bid price of over $20 million. This project included the following scope of work:
The replacement of the existing bridge (superstructure and substructure) over Route 146 and adjustments to the Route 146 profile. The project also includes the reconstruction of the intersections of the Route 146 Southbound On/Off Ramps / Elmwood Street / West Main Street, the Route 146 Northbound On/Off Ramps / Elm Street / Elm Court, the closing of Faron Circle access to Route 146 and the construction of an access drive to Faron Circle. The work also includes the realignment and reconstruction of the ramps and deceleration lanes and construction of acceleration lanes/shoulders of Route 146 Northbound and Southbound.
Your office tested 20 [Contract] Quantity Estimates (“CQEs”) for Audit Objective No. 3. Those CQEs included a total of 3,556 police detail hours. Despite the complexity of this project and the over four years necessary to complete the work, the Report noted only one issue—that 24 police detail hours were not captured in the Field Inspection Reports for one of the 20 CQEs tested. Those 24 hours represent less than 1% of the police detail hours identified in the relevant CQEs. In other words, MassDOT accurately captured 99.33% of the police detail hours in the CQEs tested for this Report.
It is also worth noting that before the Resident Engineer approved payment for these 24 hours, he confirmed with the police department that the hours were worked. Unfortunately, this conversation was not documented in the project records.
MassDOT acknowledges the issue presented in the Report. To address this issue and to avoid future instances like this one, MassDOT is in the process of updating the Traffic Officer / Police Detail Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and the Police Log/Timebook Spreadsheet. The update will include language requiring the Resident Engineer to reconcile the police bills against the project’s Field Inspection Reports and document this reconciliation within the police log/timebook spreadsheet. If the Resident Engineer discovers a discrepancy during this process, they shall document this within the Notes column of the spreadsheet and include any actions taken to resolve the discrepancy. (e.g., noting they called the police department and confirmed the office had a record of the police detail being on site for a specific shift.) MassDOT anticipates issuing the updated SOP prior to the start of the next construction season.
Auditor’s Reply
Based on its response, MassDOT is taking measures to address our concerns in this area.
| Date published: | October 19, 2021 |
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