By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Yet another audit of Broward Sheriff “Dr.” Gregory Tony’s extravagant new “training center” at BSO headquarters has uncovered more than $1.4 million in apparent overpayments made to ANF Group Inc., the builder which was also a large donor to Tony’s political action committee.
The audit, released in October to little notice, examined the contract between Sheriff Tony and Davie-based ANF Group for the design and construction of the training center – as well as related billing files, change orders and job cost records – to verify that the contract sum was not overbilled and that reimbursable costs billed to BSO were proper under the terms of the contract.
Due to the “unique and complex nature of construction project agreements and invoicing practices,” County Auditor Robert Melton informed the county commission that he hired a specialized outside auditor, Hoar Program Management (HPM) of Birmingham, AL. The audit period was from Feb. 18, 2021, the day the contract was signed, through February 2024. More audits will follow.
The contract between the sheriff and ANF Group included what’s known as a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP), a limit on the amount the owner pays a contractor for construction work. The GMP was $49.65 million. But as of Feb. 29, 2024, 65 change orders were executed between BSO and ANF, with a net value of $6.1 million, increasing the GMP to its current value nearly $55.8 million, the audit says
HPM’s audit identified a “potential” GMP overbilling of $836,977 and potential cost exceptions, including the overbilling, that total $1,453,027. HPM identified two types of disallowed costs: “adjustments” to GMP due to change orders that overrepresented the cost to make the changes and “cost exception,” that is costs that should not have been charged to the project.
The post Auditor: Sheriff Tony overpaid ANF Group, builder of BSO’s new training center – and a big political donor- $1.4 million appeared first on Florida Bulldog.
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