Los Angeles airports director Lindsey oversaw Seattle airport when controversial contracts were awarded
An examination by Washington state finds abuses in pacts signed by the port agency. She says the group had wide discretion on deals. A criminal probe is underway.
Los Angeles airports Director Gina Marie Lindsey, who is embroiled in a controversy over LAX contracting procedures, oversaw Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at a time when millions of dollars in aviation-related contracts were awarded in violation of policy and state law, according to a recent state government audit.
Released in late December, the inquiry by the Washington State Auditor's Office found widespread abuses and indications of fraud in contracts issued by the Port of Seattle, an umbrella agency that operates harbor facilities and the airport.
The findings prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation earlier this year into the port's contracting practices. Authorities declined to comment on the pending investigation.
Overall, the audit found the Port of Seattle wasted almost $100 million in taxpayer funds and violated numerous state laws on projects from January 2004 through March 2007. The audit also questioned many contracts for the harbor and airport going back to the early 1990s.
The report concluded that contracts were regularly awarded without competitive bidding, and in some cases, the port awarded sole-source contracts to former port employees. Auditors also found evidence that some employees illegally altered contractor invoices to pay them for work that exceeded maximum contract amounts.
Lindsey, who was appointed the executive director of Los Angeles World Airports in May, on Tuesday defended her 11-year stint as Seattle's aviation director, saying the port agency had wide discretion on contracts and the agreements in question were either approved by the port commission or her boss, the chief executive of the port.
"If there was something I had done outside my authority, I would have been contacted as part of the audit. No one has ever contacted me," said Lindsey, who directed the renovation of the Seattle airport. "No one has done a major program without doing things that can't be improved upon. There are things that can be learned from the audit."
But Lindsey said that she has been gone so long from Seattle that she was no longer "competent or able to address the details of the audit."
Among other things, the state report cited several airport-related contracts, including a consulting contract that was awarded to HNTB, an engineering firm, in 1993 and grew without competition from $950,000 to more than $30 million over several years.
