For those of you righties who insist that WSDOT projects are always late and over budget, I just thought I’d post the above chart from page four of WSDOT’s quarterly performance report, the Gray Notebook. (Don’t complain to me that it’s too small to read… go download the original for yourself.)
The chart shows the 12 projects that have been completed thus far from those in the package financed by the 2003 nickel gas tax increase. Eight projects were completed early, and only one late, while six of the projects came in under budget, and only one over.
I apologize in advance for any cognitive dissonance I might cause by inserting actual facts into the public debate.
UPDATE:
I guess I should have mentioned the obvious typo in the chart above… the figures are of course in thousands, not millions as stated. Silly me… I hadn’t imagined that folk would try to use a little typo to drive the debate off topic.
And for those of you who insist that we can’t trust any of the audit numbers coming out of WSDOT, well here’s a little more cognitive dissonance to stick in your craw… a list of the performance audits conducted since 1991:
Performance Audits at WSDOT: Inventory (as of April 2005)
- Washington State Ferries (WSF) Vessel Construction Audit, Booz Allen, 1991
- Environmental Organization Study, WSDOT, Transportation Commission, 1994
- Environmental Cost Savings and Permit Coordination Study, Legislative Transportation Committee, 1994
- Procurement Audit WSF, Federal Audit, 1995
- Department of Transportation Highways and Rail Programs Performance Audit, Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC), 1998
- Department of Transportation Ferry System Performance Audit, JLARC, 1998
- Public Private Initiatives Audit, Transportation Commission, 1999
- WSF Risk Assessment, Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation 1999
- Standards Review Team Report to Governor Locke, Transportation Commission, 2000
- Triennial Review WSF, Federal Audit, 2000
- Performance Audit of the Washington State Ferry System Capital Program, Office of Financial Management, 2001
- Washington State Legislature’s Joint Task Force on Ferries, 2001
- Washington State Ferry System Capital Program, OFM-Talbot, 2002
- WSDOT Aviation Division Study, JLARC, August, 2002
- Statewide Agency Capital Construction Practices (limited scope performance audit), OFM – KPMG, January, 2003
- Statewide Agency Performance Assessment, OFM-KPMG, January, 2003
- Personal Services and Purchased Services Contracting, (limited scope performance audit), OFM, January, 2003
- Department of Transportation Highways and Ferries Programs Performance Measure Review , TPAB-Dye Management Inc (November 2004)
- Department of Transportation Capital Project Management Pre-audit, TPAB-JLARC: Gannet-Fleming (January 2005)
- Environmental Permitting for Transportation Projects Pre-audit, TPAB-JLARC (January 2005)
- Business Process Review of Environmental Permitting for Transportation Projects, TPAB-JLARC; currently underway, April 2005
- Business Process Review of Accountability Oversight Mechanisms and Project Reporting for WSDOT TPAB-JLARC, April 2005
- Review of Port Angeles Graving Dock Project TPAB-JLARC; planned as of April 2005
Other Regular Audits:
- Annual WSDOT Financial & Legal Compliance audits (State Auditor)
- Internal Financial Audits (Internal Audit Office)
- IT Security Audit-( Internal Audit Office)