The assistant superintendent for Business and Administration removes the construction management function from the Maintenance Department budget and includes it as a separate budget category reporting directly to the assistant superintendent. This recommendation was accomplished with existing resources. The coordinating architect is under contract to advise and represent the district for major construction and renovation projects. In consultation with the coordinating architect, the construction manager prepares reports for internal use on the status of each project, including budgets and timelines. The review team found that overall, the coordinating architect has performed as expected, but the district is not holding the coordinating architect accountable for performance in some key areas.
Finance develops a spreadsheet summarizing the budget status of each project.
All projects listed on the spreadsheet show the original and revised budget, expenditures by month, outstanding encumbrances, and balances available. As a result, one of the projects showed a deficit, or overrun, when in fact it was within budget. Another area of concern is the specifications established by the coordinating architect for selecting architectural and engineering firms. The district's requests for proposals for these contracts do not require CAD systems. This limits these firms' flexibility in making changes to building designs to adapt to the district's changing needs.