Airport contractor accused
Sunshine Cleaning denies wrongdoing
A major janitorial services contractor at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport fell millions of dollars short of its goals for subcontracting local small businesses, an investigation has found.
Sunshine Cleaning Systems Inc. misrepresented its compliance with the County Business Enterprise program and failed to subcontract 30 percent of its $62.8 million cleaning contract to small businesses, the Broward Office of the Inspector General said in a report this week.
According to the report, Sunshine incorrectly stated in reports to the county that it had paid CBE subcontractors $10.9 million when, in fact, it made payments of $658,335 during an approximately five-year period.
The goal of the CBE program is to increase participation of small businesses in Broward County projects, whether as prime contractors or subcontractors.
“Our investigation found misconduct, and we have made several recommendations that the county has pledged to implement, including imposing fines,” John Scott, Broward County’s inspector general, said Wednesday.
The investigation examined Sunshine’s record-keeping from late 2008 when it got the contract through March 2012.
On Thursday, Sunshine’s attorney, Charles Caulkins, called the language in the report inflamma-
tory and said it insinuated the company had “ripped off the subcontractors” when in fact most of the multimillion-dollar contract had gone to the workers.
Caulkins said $48 million of the contract went to wages and benefits and $6.2 million to supplies, with the remainder split between equipment costs and profit, of which he said both Sunshine and its subcontractors received a percentage.
“Nobody was cheated out of any money,” said Caulkins, noting that the State Attorney’s Office also investigated Sunshine over two years during the inspector general’s review and had found no cause for criminal proceedings.
In an Aug. 19 letter in response to a preliminary copy of the report, Caulkins called the investigation “a regrettable misuse of the OIG powers and a disregard for the truth.”
He also said the inspector general’s claim that Sunshine had schemed to misrepresent its CBE participation in the county airport cleaning contract was “a false and misleading accusation that was crafted to impugn Sunshine’s reputation.”
He reiterated that point Thursday when reached by phone.
“It damages the reputation of Sunshine not only in South Florida but nationally,” said Caulkins, noting that the 39-year-old company’s business extends into Orlando, Tampa and Charlotte, N.C., along with other regions.
Sunshine was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale.
“It’s outrageous and slanderous,” Larry Calufetti, Sunshine’s founder and president, said of the investigation. “I’m concerned with the perception that we didn’t treat our people right. We’ve been there three decades at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and we’ve never missed a payroll.”
According to the investigation, Sunshine’s misconduct over the period included reassigning workers from one CBE roster to another to maintain its contractually required participation rates and directly paying all of the janitorial workers from its own accounts.
As a result of the investigation, the inspector general recommended that future contracts require prime contractors who fail to achieve their CBE participation goals to reimburse the program for damages tied to the cost of administering and enforcing the program.
The county’s existing contract with Sunshine had only limited remedies, such as withholding payment for failure to comply or fraud. Or the contract could be terminated if it were determined that Sunshine had secured it through fraud, misrepresentation or material misstatements.
The inspector general, however, said these remedies weren’t practical in this case as the airport required round-the-clock janitorial services, and replacement contractors could not immediately take over if the existing vendor were terminated or stopped working because of nonpayment.
In an Aug. 13 letter to Inspector General Scott, Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry said the county was reviewing all legal options and remedies available to it under existing laws and codes.
“We agree with your recommendation calling for contractual terms addressing noncompliance, misconduct and willful misrepresentation. We will work with the County Attorney’s Office to accomplish this,” Henry wrote.
Henry also said her office will ask the Board of County Commissioners to make changes to the existing law governing the CBE program to allow for penalties for any violations.