Audit says FSU didn’t follow state’s competitive selection process for $18.9M in contracts

Back in January, Florida Auditor General Sherrill F. Norman released her first operational audit for John Thrasher’s administration at Florida State University (FSU). The audit said that the university didn’t follow the state-required competitive selection process for a total of $18.9M in contracts for facilities projects.

“The University did not competitively select, in accordance with State law, construction management entity, architectural, and engineering firms for the renovations and repairs to the Civic Center and Strozier Library Projects with costs totaling $16.1 million and $2.8 million, respectively,” the audit summary said.

The full audit report went on to say that: “Specifically, given the similar project contract dates and service providers used, it appeared that University personnel divided the Civic Center and Strozier Library projects into smaller projects to keep the individual project costs below the $2 million required competitive selection process threshold.”

Thrasher responded to the preliminary audit finding by stating that “we are not aware of any state law that would require [the projects] to be grouped into one project.” But that explanation wasn’t enough to convince Norman to remove the finding from the final report.

The final audit report said: “Notwithstanding this response, given the similar contract dates and similar service providers for the Civic Center and Strozier Library projects and that State law specifies that a project may include a grouping of minor or substantially similar construction, rehabilitation, or renovation activities, University records do not clearly demonstrate how the University’s selection of CMEs and architectural and engineering firms complied with the process prescribed in State law.”

The audit also stated that the records provided by FSU weren’t sufficient to show that the university picked the best qualified firms.

It explained that: “Absent adherence to the competitive selection process specified in State law for selection of the [construction  management entity (CME)] and architectural firm for the Civic Center projects and the CME and engineering firm for the Strozier Library projects, University records do not demonstrate that the most highly qualified firms were selected for these projects and the benefits of the statutorily required competitive selection process for the CME and architectural and engineering firms were not realized.”  

Thrasher started work as FSU president on November 10, 2014. The 22 projects that the auditor general flagged as appearing to not be in compliance with competitive selection requirements had contract dates between December 18, 2014 and June 15, 2016.

Read the full audit here.