You might think when the county takes the lowest bid it is saving us money. But the reality is: If the County veers from the contract one iota, they get hit with what is called a "change order." Here is an example: This one (hit on image above) is for $20,830,437.00 and is on the 5/15 agenda of the Miami-Dade Airport and Tourism Committee. Remember that $2,000,000 a year we were paying to a company in Japan to exercise our rail cars we don't have tracks for, well this is part of that deal. We knew we were going to get hit with even more expenses in April. Yes, I know some of the money is coming from Bonds and American Airlines Claims Funds but in the end, we pay dearly. There is a second change order on the agenda for $43,465,296 from Siemens Logistics & Assembly Systems.
Do you want to do business with MIA? Here is a tip, bid low and then pile on the change order fees. That is where the big dough is.
7 comments:
Are you suggesting Miami Dade County is wasting money? LOL.
This happens time and again with bids. Of course there is no recovery so it makes one wonder if the RFPs are written incorrectly intentionally providing a means for sharing from the trough by contractor and staff insiders.
Change orders are the reality of any construction project. Good contracts, however, can provide reasonable protection from unreasonable contractors. Where do the attorneys weigh in on this. Forget the bid for a moment, was the contract written properly? If the scope of a project is increased, why? What about the engineers, architects, whomever. Construction 101, try always to avoid change orders. The cost of aggregate, steel and other building supplies have gone through the roof. The reality is that change orders allow contractors to make up for nasty little issues like that. What was the nature of the change order? That is the first question we must ask?
You can go to the County Commission today and ask "the nature of the change orders." Change orders are usually approved, only after an hour or two of complaining by commissioners because, what choice do they have? The company has them over a barrel.
Pay close attention to change orders when it comes to school construction too. Board trustees get a slice of that under the table.
Airport construction is a "black hole" for our money. There seems to be no accountability, just a continous request for millions of dollars, and when it is spent there is nothing to show for it. . .It has been under construction since I was child.
What is really disturbing to think about is that American Airlines may not be around before the county finishes the $2.9 BILLION North Terminal in 2011 or whenever they finally get it done.
American will be losing a ton of money for the foreseeable future and they haven't recouped the billions they lost after 9/11. They're stuck with a tremendous amount of fuel inefficient aircraft and pissed off employees who aren't going to bust their asses to please the flying public or American.
If American ceases to exist, or continues as a much smaller carrier, who is going to be paying all those operating fees to the airport so they can make the payments on their bond indebtedness?
Not United, not US Airways, not Delta, and not Continental. Northwest will be part of Delta and those two may go down together. This country may only have three or four carriers by 2011 after we lose a few thanks to high fuel costs and Southwest surely won't serve MIA due to the extremely high operating costs.
What happens when only half the gates, and that's being optimistic, at MIA are occupied by surviving airlines? Those airlines will be stuck with outrageous rates and charges because of MIA's bond indebtedness and they would be fools not to pack up and move to Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood Int'l Airport.
Who then gets stuck with the bond payments? The county commissioners who got us into this? Guess again....
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