Department of Criminal Justice
An Audit Report on Construction and Maintenance at the Department of Criminal Justice
June 2000
Report Number 00-031
Overall Conclusion
The Facilities Division of the Department of Criminal Justice (Department) has not ensured that it provides sufficient oversight of Inmate Construction Group projects. In addition, inconsistencies in the project management of all construction projects limit the Facilities Division's ability to effectively manage construction schedules and budgets. We had no major findings on maintenance processes and found that the Department's internal reviews provide a good periodic check on the quality and timeliness of maintenance.
In fiscal year 1999, the Department spent $182 million on construction and maintenance. The Department is currently working to address the issues raised in this report.
Key Facts and Findings
The Facilities Division has not held the Inmate Construction Group accountable for the quality and efficiency of its work. Inadequate and inconsistent project records make it difficult to determine what was actually done, and changes to projects are not adequately reviewed.
Project management for all construction projects is fragmented and may not ensure that projects meet cost, quality, and schedule expectations. Supervisors are assigned to a project only during actual construction, and they do not have enough information to control budget variances. For example, six of seven projects we reviewed exceeded their labor budgets by at least 50 percent, but project supervisors are never told what labor is charged to their budgets.
The Facilities Division has not provided appropriate and accurate information to its users. Without information such as the status of major work requests or the amount spent in a year on indirect salaries, it is difficult for customers and oversight bodies to make well-informed decisions.
A contracted engineering firm estimates it will cost almost $500 million to address deferred maintenance at 11 prison units. The firm did not provide estimates for the rest of the Department's prisons.
Contact the SAO about this report.
Download the PDF version of this report. (.pdf)
HTML Equivalent (utilizing Adobe's PDF Conversion by Simple Form).