Public Works Audit Finds Some Problems

City Controller Laura Chick said Thursday that the Los Angeles Department of Public Works has failed to provide key documentation on how it hands out contracts, a problem she has repeatedly found in other city agencies.

In the most egregious example cited in her audit, Chick said auditors found that $6 million worth of truck-hauling contracts were awarded between 2001 and 2004 without first determining if the work could be done for less money.

“Over and over again, as I am looking at the contracting process in the city of Los Angeles, I am seeing problems,” Chick said, noting that her office finds “file after file where we can’t see any documentation and backup evidence about how and why a contract was awarded. That has to stop.”

Chick said there was no evidence of waste or corruption. Rather, she said, bad recordkeeping could create the appearance of impropriety.

The controller said that the Public Works Department’s contracting practices were considerably better than those at the Department of Water and Power, the Port of Los Angeles and Los Angeles World Airports.

Chick reserved her most stinging criticism for the five members of the public works board, whom she described as “AWOL.”

Board President Valerie Shaw was out of the office Thursday, according to an automated e-mail response.

Cora Jackson-Fossett, a spokeswoman for the department, said Shaw has been on vacation and the other four board members were unavailable for comment.

“We agree [contracting] deserves a closer look, but we also agree that, in the big scheme of things, we are doing a good job,” Jackson-Fossett said. “We don’t want to waste city dollars.”

Mayor James K. Hahn said that he had already implemented suggestions from a task force that he created last year to study contracting practices.

“I haven’t had a chance to see the audit yet, but I appreciate when the controller does that,” Hahn said.

Times staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report.