MCM manager had side deals with airport contractors, IG report says
MCM, the contractor on the FIU bridge collapse now trying to keep its MIA contract with Miami-Dade County, is the subject of a new Inspector General report.
The manager in charge of outsourcing small construction jobs at Miami International Airport for county contractor MCM had side business with three of the firms getting the sought-after government jobs, according to a new report that was done by Miami-Dade County’s Inspector General and described the arrangement as “fraught with ethical hazards.”
Released Wednesday, the report states that three companies that won 30 bids under competitions that MCM held for county-funded work between 2012 and 2019 also were part of unrelated business ventures set up by the general manager overseeing the MIA contract, Alberto Calderin. The last of those side ventures ended in 2018, according to the report, and mostly involved pursuing county contracts at Water and Sewer, Housing and other de
partments.
The report’s findings from an investigation that started in 2017 land at the tail end of a fight over MCM’s attempt to extend its MIA contract, three years after the company oversaw construction of a bridge that collapsed at Florida International University. Six people were killed.
Last week, a majority of county commissioners endorsed a $70 million, five-year MCM extension after Mayor Daniella Levine Cava opposed it, but a final vote still looms.
Calderin could not be reached for comments. He resigned from MCM in
June after the company and MIA received a confidential draft copy of the Inspector General report. Despite his departure, he is scheduled to return to MCM and take over the MIA program again if commissioners approve the new contract for the company, MCM said in correspondence with county administrators.
At the heart of the investigation was Calderin’s side work beyond his fulltime position managing MCM’s airport contract. The county pays MCM to oversee minor jobs, such as bathroom renovations and lounge upgrades, as well as manage the bidding process for hiring the small companies to do the work.
The MIA program is called “Miscellaneous Construction Contract” — referred to as “MCC-8-10” in county documents.
In the report, investigators said they found no evidence of bid rigging in any of the MIA contracts awarded to the MCM subcontractors that also did business with Calderin.
But the report was critical of “Mr. Calderin’s use of three MCC-8-10 subcontractors on his own outside projects, thus giving rise to a conflict of interest.” The report called Calderin’s business ventures “a wanton violation” of contract rules requiring disclosure and approval of outside employment.
In a statement, MCM President Daniel Munilla said the report “reaffirms that there was no wrongdoing, even though the individual exercised poor judgment.” Calderin told investigators the outside work ended in 2018, shortly after the Inspector General probe began in 2017.
INSPECTOR GENERAL’S MCM INVESTIGATION BEGAN IN 2017
The report also said MCM failed to follow county rules that required Calderin to get written MIA permission for outside ventures, “relying on [the Aviation Department’s] leniency and tolerance for this contract violation” after the investigators revealed the situation in
2017.
In an affidavit, Calderin said he received a verbal OK from an Aviation employee to pursue outside work. Inspector General investigators said Calderin didn’t mention the alleged permission in interviews with him. They wrote that the since-retired Aviation employee, Aida Bao-Garciga, “repeatedly stated she had no recollection of this at all.”
In his affidavit, Calderin acknowledged some of the matters covered in the report “gave the appearance of impropriety and should not have transpired.” He also said he and MCM executives thought the matter was resolved after he wound down his company, the Calderin Group, in 2018. The report, however, said Calderin started another company, Primecon, that’s still registered to pursue county work.
The report describes Calderin overseeing two construction efforts: one for MCM at MIA, and the other pursuing different county contracts with three firms working for him at MIA.
One subcontractor, A1
All Florida Plumbing, secured $2.8 million worth of airport business under MCM while also working with the Calderin Group on a federal contract in Opalocka in 2013, the report said.
They also teamed up to bid on work at the airport itself in 2016, when A1 paid $49,570 to the Calderin Group as they competed for a renovation project for some cargo buildings at the airport.
Calderin Group returned the money after losing out on the cargo-building job, which was overseen directly by MIA staff and wasn’t one of the jobs that the airport assigned to MCM to supervise. Calderin told investigators the money was to cover a temporary bond needed to bid on the cargo-building job.
WILL MCM KEEP ITS MIA CONTRACT? FINAL COMMISSION VOTE NEED
MCM used A1 for projects outside of the airport, and it was assigned to the FIU bridge contract, according to the report. MCM produced a letter from Calderin issued in 2017, at the start of the investigation, that showed Calderin promising to shut down his company that year.
Investigators did not name the other two MCM subcontractors at MIA that were involved in Calderin’s side ventures.
The report comes as MCM is pressing county commissioners for quick approval of the contract extension that would keep the company at MIA for at least another five years, to oversee a bidding process for small businesses competing for airport work. The proposal awaiting a final commission vote lists Calderin as the general manager who would run the program, even though he resigned from the company last year after the Inspector General’s office released its draft report.
In his statement, Munilla said the Inspector General report deals with allegations from “years ago” and that MCM has received “exemplary” performance reports for its MIA contract.
He said it was his decision for Calderin to step down as general manager of the airport contract last year, months after MCM named him in its bid proposal for a new contract. Now, Munilla said MCM wants to replace him in the contract awaiting a commission vote. The problem, he said, is the change would invalidate MCM’s bid package for changing a top executive who helped MCM score well in the experience component of the bidding process.
“As the new president of MCM, I took immediate action the first day after learning from the Inspector
General’s office about an outside employee doing outside work,” he said.
Munilla used to be general counsel at the familyowned MCM before it went through bankruptcy reorganization after the bridge collapse. The president during the bridge collapse, founder Jorge Munilla, was interviewed during the investigation. He’s now listed as a project manager at MCM.
While commissioners backed MCM on a 9-4 vote, the resolution instructed the Levine Cava administration to negotiate a final contract with the company. That agreement would come back for a final vote, and the board could still opt to make another decision. Levine Cava had asked commissioners to toss out all bids and have MIA manage the contract itself, without a general contractor.
On Tuesday, MCM lobbyist Eric Zichella pressed a commission committee to demand the administration allow a quick final vote since the company had already agreed to all of the county’s terms but hadn’t heard back from Levine Cava’s staff. “We don’t understand the delay,” he said.