{"id":88771,"date":"2020-10-14T07:03:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T04:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/watchdog-rips-mta-oversight-of-big-dollar-contractors\/"},"modified":"2020-10-14T07:03:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T04:03:27","slug":"watchdog-rips-mta-oversight-of-big-dollar-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/watchdog-rips-mta-oversight-of-big-dollar-contractors\/","title":{"rendered":"#Watchdog rips MTA oversight of big-dollar contractors"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Watchdog rips MTA oversight of big-dollar contractors<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n The MTA\u2019s evaluation process for big-dollar contractors is \u201ca pass\/fail test where everyone passes\u201d and in need of a \u201cfundamental revamp,\u201d the agency\u2019s inspector general<\/a> said in a damning new report.<\/p>\n

IG Carolyn Pokorny\u2019s office found MTA managers gave nearly 100 percent of companies passing grades, allowing \u201cproblematic vendors\u201d to \u201cundeservedly score\u201d access cushy construction contracts.<\/p>\n

The evaluation process \u2014 known as the All-Agency Contraction Evaluation \u2014 is conducted for companies with capital contracts of $250,000 or more.<\/p>\n

In 2019, contract managers gave the highest grade of \u201csatisfactory\u201d to 97.2 percent of contract recipients, the IG said. Just .4 percent of contractors received failing grades.<\/p>\n

IG investigators previously flagged instances of poor performing contractors with passing ratings in 2009 and 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapital project managers have a history of rating subpar vendors \u2018satisfactory\u2019 in evaluations, creating \u2018evaluation inflation\u2019 in the system,\u201d the report released Wednesday said.<\/p>\n

\u201cData from 2016 through 2019 shows that the problem persists \u2014 and if anything has gotten worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cash-choked MTA has been plagued for years by costly contractor delays and overruns. More \u201cunsatisfactory\u201d ratings could have helped the MTA avoid costly mistakes, the IG report claimed.<\/p>\n

But Ben Fried, of the Manhattan-based think tank TransitCenter, said the MTA\u2019s problem is not bad contractors, but too few companies bidding for contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not very competitive, and the less competition, the harder it is for the MTA to get good prices,\u201d Fried said of the small pool of contractors willing to work with the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IG should look into that \u2014 what\u2019s scaring companies away from MTA business? If more of them were competing for MTA jobs, maybe the agency wouldn\u2019t be so hesitant to flag poor performers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its official response, the MTA agreed to the IG\u2019s call for a revamp of the contractor evaluation process.<\/p>\n

Officials claim to have taken steps to improve contractor performance by combining projects together and utilizing \u201cmodern construction techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe agree that the contractor evaluation process needs to be changed in order to make it a better tool,\u201d MTA Construction & Development spokesman John McCarthy said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, we have taken an aggressive app<\/a>roach to improve the contractor management process.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Watchdog rips MTA oversight of big-dollar contractors” The MTA\u2019s evaluation process for big-dollar contractors is \u201ca pass\/fail test where everyone passes\u201d and in need of a \u201cfundamental revamp,\u201d the agency\u2019s inspector general said in a damning new report. IG Carolyn Pokorny\u2019s office found MTA managers gave nearly 100 percent of companies passing grades, allowing \u201cproblematic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/mta.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[75696,75698,75699,72453,71452,7646],"class_list":["post-88771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-14-20","tag-contractors","tag-contracts","tag-inspector-general","tag-mta","tag-transit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}