Audit: policy violations in library construction

Monday, April 30, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Public Works Board did not always follow the law and overpaid on some of the construction work at UNLV's Lied Library, a legislative audit says.

The audit, released Friday, was conducted by George Allbritten, Todd Peterson, Dennis Klenczar, Jeff Ferguson, Michael Spell and Stephen Wood.

As of Feb. 28, the cost of the library, which opened in January, a year late, was $54.8 million. The general contractor and subcontractors have filed claims for another $5.9 million, and the architect has submitted a claim for another $600,000.

Competitive evaluations to select the architect and contractors, required by law, were not used by the Public Works Board, the audit says.

Change orders added $3.6 million to the cost and extended the completion date six months.

"Noteworthy among the change orders was construction of certain walls to meet fire-safety codes," the audit says. "Initial construction of these walls deviated from the building plans; but approval from appropriate regulatory officials was not obtained. These deviations created several fire-safety issues requiring more than one year to resolve."

The board issued the contractor four construction change orders to proceed with work on the fire-safety issues. These directives stated labor and materials were not to exceed $115,000. But the board then authorized change orders totaling about $690,000 for the work.

The board ignored its own agency policy by paying $4.7 million in progress billings to the contractors despite never getting the clearance of the architect, the audit says.