UW Reportedly Was Gouged For Asbestos-Removal Work -- State Auditor Criticizes Lack Of Oversight

The University of Washington has lost more than a quarter-million dollars since 1996 because of improper contracting and poor oversight of asbestos-removal work on campus, according to state Auditor Brian Sonntag.

"It's a big deal," Sonntag said. "This is a lot of public money."

The audit, which was prompted by a whistle-blower, focused on $1.5 million in contracts with Eastwood Environmental Inc. (EEI) of Tacoma for work in removing asbestos from several university buildings. The auditor looked at 75 of 1,970 work orders issued by EEI since January 1996.

Representatives from EEI did not return calls for comment.

According to the audit, the problems started with the contract award in 1996. EEI inherited the job, without having to bid, from one of its junior companies when that company failed to renew its contractor license with the state.

The audit said the UW compounded the problem when it extended the contract for three months in January 1999, again without bidding. That extension alone cost the university $73,000 because there were cheaper contractors.

The extension also allowed EEI to charge inflated prices for labor, overcharges that were not questioned by the UW.

But the audit said most of the excess costs - about $200,000 - came from overcharging on labor and materials between 1997 and 1999 and the outright manipulation of contracting procedures to get around expense limits.

Overcharges pointed out

Some of the overcharges were blatant, the state audit says. In one project, a UW facilities engineer noticed that the contractor had billed the university for 25 glove bags but had only 12 on site, and it billed the UW for 20 hours of work but spent only 11 on the job. And the UW got a bill for seven vacuums, but there were only three in the inventory and one on the job.

Auditors suggested the UW had many opportunities to take on the problems but ignored them.

For example, the audit said the UW facilities engineer toured a project work site in February and put together a report outlining alleged overcharging and rules violations. But the director of engineering services, Jim Shilt, withheld the report. He told auditors he didn't want it to interfere with an investigation of EEI by the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Shilt declined to comment.

In March, the facilities engineer and a consultant monitoring the contracts also put together a letter outlining problems with the contractor. They sent it to Weldon Ihrig, UW executive vice president, who passed it to Jim Portugal, the UW maintenance and construction manager who supervised the projects. Portugal did not properly investigate the claims, the audit says.

Portugal also declined to comment.

The audit also said Wesley Jansen, the UW asbestos coordinator, overlooked many of the charges and rules violations. Jansen's job was to monitor costs and the quality of the work and to approve labor and materials charges by the contractor.

The audit said Jansen did not inspect the work sites to be sure the work was done properly and did not keep proper records for work orders and other changes.

Bill splitting claimed

In one instance, the auditors says, Jansen told the contractor to split the billing for work on metal trays for cables to circumvent spending limits. The project, which was supposed to cost $15,000, ended up at $119,000, the audit says.

Kevin Peck, a lawyer representing Jansen, said the problems at the UW were systemic. He said Jansen was given an impossible task and repeatedly asked his supervisor for help, without success. In 1995, he said, three people were assigned to asbestos projects, compared with one today.

"Mr. Jansen feels it is unfortunate that he's being set up as the fall guy for internal problems within the university," Peck said.

The audit claimed Jansen accepted meals from the contractor and received two rare books from him, valued at $69 to $122.

Peck said Jansen and the contractor took turns buying meals for each other, and he didn't see anything unethical about that. He also said the books were probably worth a total of $25, well below the $50 state limit on gifts.

Finally, auditors found that Jansen had been using his UW computer for personal e-mail and that most of the 16,500 Web pages he viewed in April and May had nothing to do with his job. Many of the sites were pornographic, the audit said.

Peck said Jansen had "minimal use of the Internet under what he believed were appropriate university guidelines." He did not say what kinds of Web pages Jansen viewed and said Jansen disagrees on the number of pages he viewed over two months.

Ihrig has filed a report with UW police out of concern that the content of some of the Web sites Jansen visited may be illegal.

Administrative leave

Ihrig said Jansen is on administrative leave, pending disciplinary action and an investigation by UW police. The auditor's office has notified the Executive Ethics Board, which oversees misuses of state equipment.

Ihrig said his office is working to tighten spending controls but without getting rid of the flexibility needed to get projects done quickly.

Roberto Sanchez's phone message number is 206-464-8522. His e-mail address is rsanchez@seattletimes.com