On March 2, Dallas City Council members were briefed on an audit that looked at the records for road improvement and maintenance projects. The audit report, authored by City Auditor Mark Swann, raised questions about what Dallas officials are doing to ensure budgets and timelines are kept in check.
According to CBS 11 News, Dallas has had several road works and street repairs last indefinitely and greatly exceed their initial budgets. Per Swann’s audit, road work projects handled by two contractors, Heritage Materials LLC and Texas Materials Inc., cost the city over $15 million more than their initial estimate.
The audit also revealed there are no records showing why street repairs go over their initial budgets.
When Swann audited the records for the two contractors whose projects went over budget by more than $15 million, the auditor found no recorded explanation for the extra expenses.
The audit also concluded that daily updates on Dallas road projects were incomplete or inconsistent, due to the city’s use of various incompatible record-keeping systems. Records sometimes conflicted with each other, and relevant dates, such as scheduled start and finish, were left unclear.
Swann’s audit additionally determined that the city does not track the materials it has been invoiced for, thereby creating a risk for fraud or improper payment to contractors.
CBS reported Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax responded to the audit in a memo, saying the city plans to implement more than 80% of its recommendations.
He noted however that Dallas would not begin keeping records of cost overages. Broadnax explained the city currently estimates costs based on the number of miles a project spans and the type of work required. He referred to the method as “efficient,” despite being “subject to inaccuracies on an individual project basis.”
Broadnax claimed improving cost estimates would necessitate hiring five additional full-time employees and significant changes to the existing process.