Finding Text
Highway Planning and Construction – AL # 20.205, Special Tests and Provisions – Wage Rate (Material Noncompliance) Condition The Town could not provide evidence that contractors or subcontractors performing work on two highway construction projects submitted weekly certified payroll reports as required by the Davis-Bacon Act. Criteria The Davis-Bacon Act requires that contractors and subcontractors performing work on Highway Construction projects submit weekly certified payroll reports for all laborers and mechanics. Additionally, recipients of federal awards are responsible for ensuring contractor compliance with applicable federal labor standards, including obtaining and reviewing certified payroll reports. Cause The Town has not established or implemented procedures to ensure that certified payroll reports are obtained, reviewed, and retained for federally assisted construction projects subject to Davis-Bacon requirements. Effect As a result, the Town lacks sufficient assurance that contractors and subcontractors complied with prevailing wage requirements. This increases the risk that noncompliance with federal labor standards may have occurred and gone undetected. Perspective Information Weekly certified payroll reports were missing for two of five projects. Recommendation We recommend that the Town implement procedures to ensure that weekly certified payroll reports are obtained from all applicable contractors and subcontractors. These procedures should include a documented review process to verify compliance with Davis-Bacon requirements and retention of payroll records to support ongoing monitoring of federally assisted projects. View of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action Management acknowledges the recommendation. Throughout the duration of this multi-year project, staff made repeated efforts to obtain certified payroll reports from the applicable contractors and subcontractors. Despite multiple requests and follow-up attempts, we were not successful in securing the required documentation. We will evaluate and strengthen our procedures going forward to improve contractor compliance and ensure that certified payroll reports are consistently obtained, reviewed, and retained in accordance with Davis-Bacon requirements.