BALTIMORE — A construction vendor contracted out by Baltimore City could be in legal jeopardy after allegedly falsifying documents in order to meet certain levels of minority participation.
The City solicited the work back in 2018.
One condition of being selected required a commitment from the bidder to use sub-contractors associated with the Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises.
The company awarded the job reportedly issued a signed notarized report to the City's Department of General Services, claiming to have paid three qualifying subcontractors a combined $632,583.
Despite that the company still fell short of fulfilling the required minority participation rate, so they applied for and were granted a waiver.
The problem was two out of three figures the company provided turned out to be highly inflated.
According to the Inspector General's findings one minority subcontractor who the company reported paying $350,000, only received $17,000 and didn't even do any work on the project. Additionally the subcontractor denied signing the notarized report the company gave the City.
Meanwhile a second minority subcontractor reported being paid $15,164 more than what the company reported. The third subcontractor was also underpaid by $70,000.
The company in question apparently did not cooperate with the Inspector General's investigation.
Going forward the Minority and Women’s Business Opportunity Office said it will improve their waiver process and require future vendors to verify and enter all payments into a computerized database.
The Inspector General said they've referred their report to law enforcement.
