https://amtrakoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/OIG-A-2023-013 (REDACTED)_v2.pdf Makes one wonder, What is going on? Who is watching the store? Who even knows what they are doing?
mmi16, thank you for this information. Sadly, nothing in the report surprises me. Though my career had nothing to do with transportation, it did have much to do with high-dollar long-lead government contracts. The results were usually the same due to poorly written specs and RFPs, overworked understaffed program managers, inexperienced project managers, and general apathy within contracting agencies. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
OIG reports are always about management and business control practices, not about actual construction. Frankly for a federal program that large to have only two major findings - which aren't even material findings, is actually a good sign. The Navy ship procurement audit had dozens of such things. That aside, I'd be interested in seeing what the contract said about these things beforehand, and how many contracting officers (and at what level) Amtrak has assigned to this before I rant too much. Since Amtrak's VP who is responsible for this acquisition agreed with the OIG findings, I suspect there isn't much there there.
