Making the Numbers Work Andy Simmerman (right) and Vee Rogers discuss discrepancies on debris tickets at the RFO.  LA-RFO Photo by Spec. Larry Gleeson. Back to Features

An Honest Dollar
Squeezing the "load ticket" enhances recovery integrity
By Dave Harris, public affairs specialist, Louisiana Recovery Field Office

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The human element and success in flushing out the fudge factor can make or break the integrity of accurately reimbursing contractors for picking up and dumping debris removed in South Louisiana, especially as the haul total approaches enough to fill eight Empire State Buildings.           

The Army Corps of Engineers role in the National Response Plan benefits taxpayers with safeguards evolved from years of the industry’s “lessons learned,” checks and balances, and sound audit principles that ensure accuracy for both the government and the prime contractors. 

The key is properly completing, tracking, dissecting, scrutinizing and re-checking the trek of the ever-moving “load ticket,” ensuring accuracy without running up the cost of the paper trail authenticating any gaps between claimed and actual loads.  

The multiple-copy load ticket takes a ride from Corps issue at the street or lot pick-up point, to the truck driver, to the landfill tower, to the Lake Shore Office for data entry, through multiple QA-QC checks and eventually to the reconciliation – recon - team at the Louisiana Recovery Field Office in downtown New Orleans. 

When a contracted debris truck pulls up to a dump site tower – tall enough for a visual assessment of what’s inside the trailer - the Corps’ quality assurance inspector from up high sizes up the load. Often the QA will subtract a specific number of cubic yards based on the size of the load and perceived voids in the trailer. 

Working out the details in the field

Sizing a load is not an exact science. It’s a knowledgeable estimate honed by debris veterans. Specific guidelines, training and enough measures and eyeballs narrow the room for error to make it a well-informed entry. 

“Calling the load is like calling balls and strikes in a baseball game,” the Debris QA Field Guide says. “If the job is done correctly, not everyone will be happy. The best way to minimize complaints is to call each load consistently and in a manner fair to the government and to the contractor. Whenever possible, it is good to have two QA persons working in the tower and calling each load.” 

Corps discussions with the Army Audit Agency found that both Corps and contractor workers receive ample training on debris operations and the load ticket process prior to deployment to the field.  Instructions on responsibilities and step-by-step directions on the completion of the load tickets are included in the pamphlet each is given.  

Any anomalies are investigated and corrected before final reports for the day’s activities are generated.  

A sloppily written numeral may be interpreted by one reader as a “9” and by another as a “4.” Because such mysteries require extra footwork, trainers emphasize that QAs must practice and insist on legible entries.  Load tickets that are blank or unreadable are returned to the field for correction.   If the load ticket is not corrected, it is not paid. 

QAs account for blank tickets as if they were blank checks. A stray one in the wrong hands could cost the government a bundle.  

Andy Simmerman, a civil engineer from Memphis, wrestles down any mismatches that show up in recon. The contractor submits an invoice for payment along with supporting data.  Recon people enter the contractor’s data into a “canned-program” spreadsheet specially designed for the LA-RFO mission that highlights differences between the contractor and government records.

Andy and others follow up on discrepancies. “We run it down by tracing it back to the base document – the load ticket.  We make the contractor aware of the discrepancy and prepare a memorandum for record to Contracting Division providing a technical payment recommendation,” Andy said. “Contracting has the final word.” 

He added that in a number of cases, the contractor has billed for less than he was due.  

In addition, the recon team found between 100 and 150 documented cases for which the contractor did not have a record and couldn’t bill the Corps - around 4,500 cubic yards for some $120,000. Subsequently, Corps records were used to supplement the contractor’s records, which enabled the contractor to invoice the work. 

Dan Mroz from Kansas City District added that load size isn’t the only challenge, but the recon process also found QA entries erroneously recording distances truck travel between the point of origin and the landfill. “Equitable adjustments had to be made.”  

Integrity and scrutiny serve everyone. 

Dan Mroz

Dan said more than a million load tickets have been generated on this mission. “The team checks the tickets with the goal of issuing a valid payment that is fully documented.” 

Andy said that while someone might speculate that “we spend a dollar to chase a nickel,” the focus is on doing the job right, and without the checks and balances, “the inspector general would hit [any discrepancies] out of the park.”  More importantly, a system based on integrity ensures the Corps’ place as an honest broker on the national response team. 

Both agreed that the lessons learned in this unprecedented mission would pay off in enhanced procedures on an even wider scale as they are applied to future disasters, starting with setting up a recon team immediately after the storm. 

A good day is when a recon specialist can “close out a task order, recommend final payment and Contracting send a release-of-claims letter for a particular task order,” Andy said. “Or when you process an invoice and you and the contractor match on everything.” 

And a good day for Dan? He smiled near the end of his 72-hour week. “Sunday!” On a more serious note, he added, “And when I don’t have to struggle with the data base.”

Just like paying a contractor at home only after he completes work on a new deck, Jean Todd, Chief of Contracting, explained that the recon process enables an additional review because a portion of the documented total is retained prior to payment to insure proper accounting procedures.  

“If it says 100 cubic yards, I want to make sure we got 100 cubic yards,” she said. 

The RFO Recon Team