Palm Tran Connection queried on $10.7M in costs

Audit finds no record of what contractors paid subcontractors.

Palm Tran Connection approved payments of $10.7 million to contractors for work performed by their subcontractors without canceled checks or other official bank records to verify that the contractors had paid the subcontractors, according to an audit report from Palm Beach County’s Office of Inspector General.

“We found that PTC did not require the contractors to submit with their invoices all supporting documents identified in the paratransit services contracts, e.g. canceled checks (or bank records showing electronic fund transfers) evidencing payments to the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) subcontractors, prior to the County representatives (PTC staff ) approving invoices for payment to the contractors,” the audit report states. “This resulted in $10,721,698 of questioned costs.”

Palm Tran Executive Director Clinton Forbes accepted that and other audit findings, including one noting that Palm Tran Connection “did not properly review supporting documentation (i.e. actual receipts) prior to approving the contractors’ invoices for reimbursement of fuel expenses” and another that the door-to-door paratransit service “did not seek legal or tax advice to determine whether it had a right to file and receive alternative fuel credits for fuel costs that the County reimbursed to its contractors.”

Responding to the OIG, Forbes said that “while there were some process and control issues found, I am pleased that you also found that the controls of our reimbursement of fuel expenditures to be overall satisfactory. Moreover, I was also pleased to learn that once proper documentation was provided during the

audit process, there were no cost variances found as part of Palm Tran Connection’s reimbursement of fuel expenses to vendors.”

The OIG’s review, part of its annual audit of county services, focused on Palm Tran Connect’s fuel processes and operations from October 2015 through September 2016. OIG said that “based on exceptions noted during the fuel expenses reimbursement testing,” it expanded its audit to include Palm Tran Connect’s process for reviewing paratransit service providers’ invoices and supporting documentation.

OIG made numerous recommendations on how Palm Tran can strengthen its documentation process. “PTC has concurred and accepted all thirteen recommendations and has taken corrective actions that have resolved ten recommendations,” the audit report states.

ELIOT KLEINBERG / THE PALM BEACH POST 2015 Palm Tran Executive Director Clinton Forbes accepted the negative findings of the audit and focused on some of the more positive findings.