Poor Management Practices Can Lead to Fraud, Waste & Abuse

Below, CABOC presents a collection of documents collected from a variety of sources regarding poor construction bond management practices that can lead to fraud, waste, and/or abuse.  They are sorted by the agency that is the subject of the report, presented in chronological order for each agency within the agencies presented in alphabetical order. General reports that involve multiple agencies are presented under the name of the sponsor or author of the report).  It should be recognized that some of these reports are of interest because they call out practices that should be avoided that occurred in the past, in some cases many years in the past, but it should not be assumed that nothing has changed since the original report or article.

Poor management practices can lead to fraud, waste, and abuse as defined below by the Comptroller General of the United States:

Abuse: Behavior that is deficient or improper when compared with behavior that a prudent person would consider reasonable and necessary business practice given the facts and circumstances, but excludes fraud and noncompliance with provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements.

Fraud: Involves obtaining something of value through willful misrepresentation. Whether an act is, in fact, fraud is determined through the judicial or other adjudicative system and is beyond auditors’ professional responsibility.

Waste: The act of using or expending resources carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose. Waste can include activities that do not include abuse and does not necessarily involve a violation of law.

Press/media articles, documents, and reports that provide examples of poor management practices are listed below in alphabetical order by government agency.

West Contra Costa USD Forensic Investigation:

https://www.wccusd.net/domain/1723