A lack of public works department oversight and review, and poor recordkeeping opens the door for fraud, unnecessary payouts and subpar street maintenance,...
A city review of Dallas’ public works department found that the agency routinely doesn’t check to make sure work is done properly, on time or on budget.Everton Bailey Jr.Dallas’ department that oversees street maintenance routinely doesn’t check to make sure work is done properly, on time or for the estimated cost, according to a city audit.
City audits in 2015 and 2017 found similar patterns of missing documents related to completed roadwork, inspections and formal policies and procedures. The audit looked at two companies that got almost $289 million in public works contracts for pavement and road resurfacing work from 2019 through 2021. The majority of the amount came from bond money, but $90 million came from the city’s general fund.
The auditor’s office made 16 recommendations for the public works department director including putting in rules that lay out quality control testing and proper monitoring for road projects, creating a new system to track all projects in one place, and getting money back for at least one of the projects where the city overpaid.
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