nwasianweekly.com
Jan. 19, 2008

Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion

Lloyd Hara

Commissioner Hara begins work on audit’s recommendations

By James Tabafunda
Northwest Asian Weekly

When State Auditor Brian Sonntag released the results of a 334-page performance audit of the Port of Seattle last month, Commissioner Lloyd Hara was not just a little worried. He was “very concerned” about its findings of possible fraud, $97.2 million in wasted public funds and concealed information from commissioners.

In response, he supported Commission Resolution 3181 on Jan. 8 to bring back the oversight powers of port commissioners. The subcommittee, formed by the resolution, is made up of Port Commissioners Patricia Davis and Gael Tarleton. It will propose amendments by June 30.

“The report clearly indicated that too much authority had been delegated to the CEO by the commission,” he said. “Ultimately, the five, elected (commissioners) are held accountable for the actions of the port.” Mic Dinsmore served as CEO during the years under review by the audit.

In a Jan. 14 interview, Hara said he wants to review this authority with CEO Tay Yoshitani and the audit’s 22 other findings and 51 recommendations — only six findings and 20 recommendations have been formally agreed to by the port.

In a letter to the community dated Jan. 7, Yoshitani disagrees with auditors, saying, “The Port did not waste $97.2 million in taxpayer money.”

Hara admits “bits and pieces” of the final report were known to port commissioners since last September.

“To see the array of findings, that’s pretty unusual to find that many in one report,” said Hara, a former King County auditor elected to the Port Commission in 2005. “(I want to) have a full discussion of each and also to have, if necessary, the auditors (Patti Jones and David Cotton) present.”

Hara is focused on two other areas of concern: poor management of construction contracts and the violation of competitive-bidding requirements. When he read allegations about illegal contracts — mostly dealing with Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s third runway — in the audit, he said he immediately saw red flags. Jones and Cotton’s finding: The port became “vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse.”

“I still think that still needs to be totally resolved and understanding why these practices existed for many years. I mean this is well before I ever got here,” said Hara.

He added, “I don’t want to do business this way. I want to do everything on the table, above board and make sure that we’re following current contracting law.”

Yoshitani is hiring a chief procurement officer to handle all port contracts and an independent investigator to probe for alleged fraud.

Port commissioners now require port staff to provide detailed quarterly reports on construction projects. They also require Yoshitani to provide regular reports on his “course of action” resulting from the audit.

Hara believes Yoshitani will change the culture at the port. He said, “I think the commission needs to give him that reassurance that if he does take some strong action, he’s got the backing of the commission.”

Zero tolerance for fraud is a shared belief between Hara and Yoshitani. They said any instances of fraud will be handled swiftly including involvement of law enforcement. As a public enterprise, Hara feels it’s important to maintain public trust at all levels within an organization.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department continues its criminal investigation of alleged fraud.

One minority business owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “When we tried to get Port work … they never even asked us for a cost proposal, they just told us that they selected someone else.” The owner of a top international architecture firm based in Washington, he said that they have been approaching the port for about six years, and were never invited to bid. He said he was not surprised by the audit’s findings and, in fact, would not be surprised if the justice department found even uglier practices.

“The Port is going to clean up its act,” reminded Hara. “Ninety-five percent of our trade is in Asia, and we need to be a good steward of our funds but also working actively with the Asian American community to make sure they do have a Port that’s working in their best interests so we can increase traffic between Seattle and the Far East.”

James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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