Massachusetts transit bosses under fire for $100T bathroom

BOSTON — Massachusetts transportation officials are under fire for authorizing a no-bid contract for a tiny, $100,000 (P5.2 million based on yesterday's exchange rate of P52 to $1) bathroom inside a state office building.

WCVB-TV reports that the 115-squarefoot bathroom and adjoining kitchenette was installed last year at the State Transportation Building inside the new state Transportation Department and MBTA board room.

The project was fasttracked and not put out to bid, which is usually done for state projects to make contractors compete for the work and keep costs down.

Instead, the bathroom job was simply handed to the general contractor, who wrote in a letter to the MBTA that the restroom and kitchenette were to be done "for the Secretary of Transportation as expeditiously as possible."

Greg Sullivan, a former state inspector general who's now research director at the Pioneer Institute, called the cost "outrageous."

“I think anybody who owns a home knows that a little half-bath like this shouldn't cost $101,635,” he said.

There's nothing particularly fancy about the bathroom. It has a toilet and sink and an adjoining kitchenette with a small counter, a couple of drawers and a mini-fridge.

Materials cost only $7,317, but Sullivan said the cost of the project ballooned with items like rented trucks and extra supervisors.

“This contract should have been put out to bid without a doubt to drive the price down,” Sullivan said.

“The add-ins kept piling on and piling on until it reached the astronomical, mindblowing number of $100,000 for a little halfbath,” he said.

The bathroom is about 40 steps from a spacious public bathroom on the same floor.

A spokesman for the Transportation Department said board members are sometimes followed to that bathroom by reporters during public meetings.