FAA audits city’s handling of airport minority contracting

The Federal Aviation Administration is auditing the City of Atlanta’s management of airport minority contracting as part of the city’s legal settlement with an airport minority contractor.

The settlement came after the FAA said in 2019 that the city of Atlanta violated federal minority contracting regulations by failing to monitor and enforce terms of the joint venture between airport contractor XpresSpa and its minority partner, Cordial Endeavor Concessions, which complained it had been unfairly dismissed.

The FAA audit of the city’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise programs for airport concessions and other airport contractors is part of the city’s “corrective action plan” to fulfill FAA requirements.

The review is happening this month. After the FAA completes the review, it will identify corrective actions. Then the city and a minority-contracting consultant, which the settlement required the city to hire, will develop an action plan.

It’s another element in the FAA’s scrutiny of the City of Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson

International Airport. The FAA in the last couple of years has launched investigations into Hartsfield-Jackson, alleging possible misuse of airport revenue.

The city also started efforts to try to reform its troubled Office of Contract Compliance, which manages the minority contracting programs.

In January, Larry Scott, the city’s former director of the Office of Contract Compliance, was sentenced to two years in prison in a corruption case. Last fall after Scott pleaded guilty, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms ordered a review of the office.