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Airport Pursues Project Audit

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By LAURA KINSLER

lkinsler@tampatrib.com

Published: March 19, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - Two months after the Zephyrhills Airport Authority voted to seek a formal review of its $2.8 million hangar project, airport manager Trina Sweet says she is prepared to move forward with the audit.

The authority wanted to hire an auditor to determine whether its engineering firm filed fraudulent bills for the project, but the audit was delayed because of procedural questions.

Sweet said the city's auditor recommended hiring an outside accountant. She hopes to hire someone by the end of the week. "It's a sensitive issue, but two of the CPAs said they'd be willing to do it," she said.

The auditor will be asked to review the billing and work logs submitted by the contractor, David Carr, and Tampa-based LPA Group engineering firm. Carr has accused the engineering firm of charging the city for hours it never worked and for meetings it didn't attend. In addition, a design flaw by LPA required a $100,000 change order and delayed completion of the project for four months, he said.

The airport authority hired the Tampa firm to act as construction manager. The contract called for 260 hours of on-site inspections, charged at a rate of $100 per hour. The firm's inspector actually billed the city for 381.5 hours before he was terminated in August.

Carr said the inspector was rarely at the job site. He filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Transportation, which paid for 80 percent of the project.

Bill Schipper, LPA's inspector and construction manager, submitted timesheets to the company and/or mileage reports for at least 20 site visits where there is no documentation to substantiate that he was on the job.

"There definitely were discrepancies," Sweet said. "We need to get answers, but once we get that information, it's not for me to decide what we do with it."

Mohsen Mohammadi, who heads LPA's Tampa division, has said the firm's billing was legitimate, and that he never questioned the inspector's timesheets.

The Florida Board of Professional Engineers also is investigating Carr's allegations. In January, the contractor filed a notice of intent to sue the city, saying the delays cost him $225,000.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 779-4617.

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