Executive
Waste of the Day: Architect of the Capitol Bungled Contract Management
The Architect of the Capitol Office is not properly overseeing the outside companies it often hires to do contract work.
![Congress meets here - Capitol with Senate wing in foreground](https://cnav.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Capitol-with-Senate-wing-in-foreground-scaled.jpg)
Topline: Congress amended federal law this year to give increased oversight to the Architect of the Capitol agency following allegations against its former director.
Architect of the Capitol office needs oversight on outside contractors
Now, it turns out the office isn’t only having issues among its employees; it also lacks proper oversight of the outside construction companies it hires to work on Capitol Hill.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that the Architect of the Capitol’s office is organized in a way that “directly inhibits” oversight of contractors and may not have the “independence, support, and visibility needed to ensure that it can carry out its responsibilities.”
Key facts: The Architect’s office, which builds and maintains federal offices in Washington, hires contractors for maintenance of everything from fountains to “historically significant doors.” The office had 848 active contracts worth nearly $2 billion as of August 2023.
The Architect appoints special employees to award contracts, but the GAO says the agency “lacks the ability to accurately track” whether those employees have been properly trained.
The employees are also not required to be trained in federal spending laws. Only two of the eight employees interviewed by the GAO said they took a course on appropriations law. Both said it was the most important class they took.
The employees are not given any specific rules for choosing contractors, which the GAO says could cause inexperienced or unqualified companies to be hired for construction projects.
The issues don’t end once the contracts are signed.
Shirking responsibility
The Architect of the Capitol is required to audit contractors twice a year and track their spending, but not all employees are actually doing so, the report found.
The Architect’s office also refused to provide some construction companies with non-classified information they needed to do their jobs, citing “national security concerns.”
Thirty percent of the contractors said their decisions were overruled by federal employees, which the GAO says defeats the purpose of hiring outside companies to work on Capitol Hill.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Background: Congress hired Thomas Austin as the new Architect of the Capitol in February. He replaced Brett Blanton, a Donald Trump appointee who was fired by President Biden last year after an inspector general report exposed several ethical violations.
It’s the first time Congress has chosen its own Architect. The president used to be in charge of hiring and firing the Architect, but the process was changed this year after some lawmakers were frustrated at how long it took Biden to fire Blanton.
Summary: If the government is going to bring in outside companies to work on some of the nation’s most important buildings, they need to monitor the process more closely.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) was the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.
Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.
Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.
Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.
Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.
In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.
Andrzejewski passed away in his sleep at his home in in Hinsdale, Illinois, on August 18, 2024. He is survived by his wife Kerry and three daughters. He also served as a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).
Waste of the Day articles published after August 18, 2024 are considered posthumous publications.
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