Home MTA Construction Debarment Debacle: Disqualification rule raises concerns over bidding as contractors file suit

Debarment Debacle: Disqualification rule raises concerns over bidding as contractors file suit

by Benjamin Kabak

Contractors have filed suit over the MTA’s debarment regulation as transit advocates worry about the short-sightedness of the new rule.

During last month’s MTA Board Meetings, a routine discussion on a procurement contract took an interesting turn. The agency is currently in the process of awarding a two-year, $38.8 million contract for elevator installation and other accessibility upgrades at the 4 train’s 170th Street station and had initially identified six potential qualified bidders for the project. In the end, only two companies opted to bid on the work while three of the others declined to propose offers, citing, as the MTA put it in Board materials, “excessive risk associated with terms and conditions contained in the contract.”

On its surface, a few companies dropping out due to “excessive risk” hardly seems newsworthy, but underlying that excessive risk was the MTA’s new debarment policy. At the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the New York State legislature earlier this year passed a law mandating that the MTA institute a debarment (or disqualification) policy, ostensibly to maintain better oversight over project budgets and timelines. The MTA’s current emergency policy, designed to comply with law, mandates a five-year debarment for any contractor that delivers a project at least 10 percent late or at least 10 percent over budget.

Watching contractors drop out of the bidding process like flies following the implementation of the debarment rule was anticipated and feared by MTA executives and external watchdog organizations alike, and many have accused Gov. Cuomo of once again taking a wrecking ball to a problem that required a more delicate solution. Now, a group of contractors is fighting back, as they have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the MTA’s debarment rule, as enacted, is unconstitutional. Neither the state nor MTA will comment on pending litigation, but so far, debarment has been a predictable mess for the MTA.

A Recent History of Debarment: an Executive Order, a hastily-enacted law, and emergency rule-making

The recent history of debarment in New York State starts with an executive order issued by Gov. Cuomo in late January. EO 192 established a requirement that all state agencies “rely on the determination made by other state entities” regarding debarment of a contractor. Thus, if any state agencies or any public authority for which Cuomo appoints the chair or CEO, as he does with the MTA, determines a contractor must be debarred, every other state entity must adhere to that decision.

With this EO, the risk to contractors doing business with any New York state entity increased exponentially, and for months, the contractor industry has been buzzing with concern over this requirement. It’s compounded by the reality that debarment in one state often leads other states to disqualify contractors, and suddenly, a contractor can find itself out of government work entirely.

Then, in April, as part of the budget negotiations, the state legislature approved a debarment requirement applicable specifically to the MTA. The new requirement, Section 1279-h of the Public Authorities Law, became law with no public hearing or comment period and obligated the MTA to create a “debarment process for contractors of the authority that prohibits such contractors from bidding on future contracts, after a debarment determination” by the MTA. The state directed the MTA to create a debarment regulation applicable “in situations involving a contractor’s failure to substantially complete the work within the time frame set forth in the contract, or in any subsequent change order, by more than ten percent of the contract term; or where a contractor’s disputed work exceeds ten percent or more of the total contract cost where claimed costs are deemed to be invalid pursuant by the contractual dispute resolution process.”

And that’s just what the MTA did. In May, the MTA issued an emergency regulation, since twice extended, that did exactly what the state legislature and governor mandated, each time without any public hearing or comment period. If any contractor faces debarment, three MTA employees will hear the complaint, and while the contractor will be able to present defenses, the debarment panel is not permitted to employ discretion in determining whether to proceed with debarment. If the grounds for debarment are met — if the contractor misses the target completion date by 10 percent or if the project is over budget by 10 percent — the MTA must debar, and the MTA can also opt to disbar the contractor’s corporate parents, affiliates and subsidiaries. It is, to put it mildly, draconian.

Concern over debarment from within and outside the MTA

Even before the contractors filed suit a few weeks ago, debarment has faced criticism from agency insiders and watchdogs who have frosty relationships with Gov. Cuomo. The Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA raised concerns about the process that lead to the debarment regulation in a letter to MTA Chair Pat Foye earlier this year. Lisa Daglian wrote:

We are particularly troubled that this emergency action was taken during the Executive Session…Contractors must be held accountable, but so too must the MTA for the decisions it makes: undertaking such a sea change in secret sends a message that the authority is in a constant state of emergency, is above the law, and can make or bend the rules as it sees fit. The public has a right to know what the MTA’s Board members are voting on, and how. They have a right to review documents in advance of public meetings, and comment on proposed rule changes. They should not have to read about votes taken in secret for “emergency orders” that will ultimately affect them for many years to come.

Since debarment was approved, I’ve spoken with senior officials within the MTA who are extremely concerned with the chilling effects of debarment. Based on the challenges of working with the MTA, an organization known for being unable to manage project scope and budget, and the now-steep penalties, these MTA officials have routinely expressed their beliefs that debarment will lead to a decrease in the number of companies willing to work with the agency and a corresponding increase in project budgets. To combat the potential risk of debarment, those contractors willing to take on the risk will now be incentivized to submit bids with significantly inflated price tags and long construction timelines, thus further exacerbating the MTA’s cost crisis.

Good governance groups have picked up on this potential effect as well. “On debarment — which we strongly oppose — at Monday’s Transit Committee meeting, it was revealed that three vendors didn’t submit proposals on a design-build contract because of risks from debarment,” Reinvent Albany’s Rachael Fauss said to the MTA Board last month. “This risks includes factors beyond their control. Debarment is bad policy and a big mistake because it reduces competition. This means higher prices and a smaller pool of expertise to draw from.”

At a time when the MTA wants to increase the scope of its work and is on the verge of moving forward with a plan that calls for over $10 billion of construction spending every year for five years, imposing a five-year debarment penalty could whittle down the field of contractors to too few to complete the work. If only two out of six would bid on ADA work now, how can the MTA hope to fulfill its promises to deliver 70 fully accessible stations within five years?

And within the environment of the MTA, ADA work is considered relatively easy. I’ve spoken with MTA officials who are concerned that debarment could put Siemens and Bombardier at risk of losing their abilities to bid on MTA projects. If that were to happen, it would be functionally impossible for the MTA to complete most of the five-year capital plan at all. There simply aren’t enough companies able to do work within New York to ensure competitive bids and enough bodies to perform all of the work in the face of a debarment threat.

Contractors file suit to stop debarment regulations

In an effort to stop the MTA from enforcing its debarment rules, a group called the Alliance For Fair and Equitable Contracting Today, or AFFECT, filed suit shortly before Thanksgiving. The Alliance, represented by one-time Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal, consists of the General Contractors Association of New York, the New York Building Congress, the Associated General Contractors of New York State LLC, the Building Trades Employers Association, and the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York. It is the über-lobbying group for the contracting industry, and in their lawsuit, they say, “Debarment is a death penalty for a public works contractor.”

In short, the suit alleges a variety of constitutional violations, including the Contract Clause, the Supremacy Clause, the Dormant Commerce Clause, procedural and substantive due process, and the First Amendment. The MTA’s debarment regulation applies retroactively and thus rewrites pre-existing contracts. It also affords the MTA with no leeway in determining fault. A few sections of AFFECT’s complaint struck me as particularly noteworthy. Calling New York’s approach to debarment “wildly out of step” with other debarment regimes around the country, AFFECT states:

The Debarment Statute and MTA Regulations do not require any wrongful conduct by the contractor or permit consideration of mitigating factors or allow inquiry into whether the contractor, engineer, or other vendor acted in good faith. MTA authorities must debar a contractor, consultant or supplier once a determination is made that the contractor exceeded the statute or regulation’s schedule or claim thresholds. No consideration is given to why a project went longer or whether a claim for a cost overrun was put forth in good faith. Nor is any consideration given to whether the contractor has taken steps to prevent schedule and cost overruns in the future.

As a result, the Debarment Statute and MTA Regulations create a draconian regime where a contractor operating in good faith may be debarred for merely exercising its express contractual rights to request additional time or costs due to changes necessitated by the MTA or a third party.

Whether this is a winning legal argument is, of course, another question and one premature to answer. The MTA has around two weeks to file a response to the lawsuit, and state and agency representatives have defended debarment all year. “The MTA is changing the way we do business to deliver for our customers and that means ensuring the historic $51 billion capital plan will be delivered on-time and on-budget,” Abbey Collins, an MTA spokesperson, said in a statement last week. “Beyond that, we don’t comment on pending litigation.” 

I find the state’s approach to debarment far too limiting and am sympathetic to the arguments I’ve heard from MTA insiders and advocates that debarment will be harmful in the short-term to an agency looking to build fast. It’s not a solution to the MTA’s cost crisis and actually exacerbate it in the long run. Whether a court decides to invalidate the debarment regulations or not, New York state (and by extension the MTA) and its contractors should work out a better solution to the problem of cost overruns and missed deadlines. The debarment sledgehammer isn’t the answer.

You may also like

19 comments

RideTheATrain December 2, 2019 - 7:19 am

Thanks for the interesting article Ben. It seems to me that although there are some issues with the clandestine way the rule was passed, at its core it is a good concept. Yes, it should probably be amended to “[give consideration] to why a project went longer or whether a claim for a cost overrun was put forth in good faith”. But overall don’t you agree it will help contain cost and schedule overruns?

You wrote: “To combat the potential risk of debarment, those contractors willing to take on the risk will now be incentivized to submit bids with significantly inflated price tags and long construction timelines, thus further exacerbating the MTA’s cost crisis.” While the bid price and time estimates will increase, would they not correspond closer to reality? A buffer would be added to account for the debarment risk, but competition with other contractors should prevent said buffer from becoming egregious. In theory the end effect would be a more accurate bid, assuming there are enough bidders to be competitive.

Reducing the pool of bidders is an unfortunate side-effect, to be sure. It would probably be best to allow ‘good faith exceptions’ for that reason, and limit the debarment to the MTA instead of extending to all state agencies.

Reply
SEAN December 2, 2019 - 9:48 am

Well stated.

Reply
Deadlocked December 2, 2019 - 11:53 am

> Reducing the pool of bidders is an unfortunate side-effect, to be sure. It would probably be best to allow ‘good faith exceptions’ for that reason, and limit the debarment to the MTA instead of extending to all state agencies.

Based on this article, the MTA doesn’t have control over the external impact of debarment. The extension of debarment to other NYS agencies was done by a Cuomo-issued executive order, and disqualification in other states is due to those other state’s rules.

Reply
Larry Littlefield December 2, 2019 - 8:42 am

The MTA has been raped by contractors for decades. If this isn’t the solution, what is?

Reply
SEAN December 2, 2019 - 9:58 am

The MTA has been raped by contractors for decades. If this isn’t the solution, what is?

Perhaps being a bit more tactful when making contracting regulations. That said, I get what you’re saying. Also perhaps other contractors will work harder with cost containment so they aren’t blacklisted.

Reply
Larry Littlefield December 2, 2019 - 11:10 am

Disbarment has historically been a joke too. They just reorganize under a different name and the courts let them bid again.

Reply
SEAN December 2, 2019 - 2:05 pm

Therefore the courts aren’t looking closely enough at who is making bids. That might be part of the solution. If I knew that I could be band from bidding on future contracts if I didn’t keep close to a current bid or schedule, then I wouldn’t attempt to lowball & then inflate. That’s what Cuomo is trying to stop, but perhaps he’s going about it in an extreme manner & that’s unproductive.

Reply
Larry Penner December 2, 2019 - 2:02 pm

Debarment of poorly performing contractors alone will not solve project cost containment along with fast tracking procurements and contract change orders for the MTA. It is easier said than done due to other significant obstacles.

Federal Transit Administration “Buy America” requirements continue to play a role in the ability of the MTA to both speed up capital projects and contain cost growth. Governor Cuomo has his own “New York Buy America Act” as well.

Second is the Davis Bacon requirement of paying prevailing wages. Third is US Cargo preference requirement for private companies to use only American vessels when shipping product from abroad. Fourth, prime contractors sometimes have problems finding qualified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) sub contractors with specialized skills to meet required federal and state civil rights goals. Fifth, insufficient and inadequate track outages delay completion. Sixth, change orders during construction due to unforeseen site conditions or last minute changes in project scope can add to the final bill.

(Larry Penner is a transportation historian, writer and advocate who previously worked 31 years for the United States Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office)

Reply
RIDETHEATRAIN December 2, 2019 - 3:01 pm

Thanks Larry for the insight – it’s easy to forget all the red tape that goes on behind the scenes. So basically points 1-4 could (and probably should) be scrapped, but it would be politically infeasible. Points 5-6 are uncontrollable. For the foreseeable future, there probably isn’t anything to be done.

Reply
SEAN December 2, 2019 - 8:46 pm

@ RIDETHEATRAIN,

Thanks for bringing up the red tape aspect in all this. I should have thought of that when I posted above. Anyway… contracting is a dirty business as LL & LP eluted to in their respected comments & not knowing enough about the goings on from the inside makes it difficult for many of us to be certain what’s really happening. Are these lawsuits against Cuomo just a response to protect the gravy train that these construction firms like Dregottos have enjoyed forever, or is there a piece of this I’m missing.

Reply
Mark December 2, 2019 - 10:45 pm

yeah but by definition all those things don’t really matter. Because all American projects face those same regulations with regards to buy America, Jones act and things like that. There’s a reason that New York is still 3 to 6 times more expensive than even Los Angeles, before we even get to international comparisons.

Seems likely to have to do with the stations. That’s why East side Access got very expensive, huge station mezzanines in all the subway projects too. look at how the tunnel boring machine diameter size in the VTA San Jose project due to Bart’s emergency evacuation requirements nearly doubling the amount of Earth they have to move as well as the huge station caverns with multi levels led to enormous increases in the projects cost estimate.

Reply
Nathanael December 6, 2019 - 4:22 am

“Debarment of poorly performing contractors alone will not solve project cost containment “… except it did solve project cost containment in Boston.

The problem is that the MTA’s written a bogus debarment regulation. A good regulation would give the Board discretion to debar a contractor if an audit found that they were irresponsible, incompetent, corrupt, or chiseling, *not* have an automatic debarment with no allowances for good faith problems.

Reply
Nathanael December 6, 2019 - 4:17 am

Soooo, the MTA definitely needed a debarment rule. They were flat-out scammed by the contractors for South Ferry station, and by the contractors for East Side Access, and by quite a few other contractors. Because they fell for the scams, honest contractors won’t bid and scammer contractors have taken over everything, raising prices to the moon.

This happened in Boston too, until the corrupt contractor for the Green Line Extension was debarred. Suddenly good contractors started bidding and prices went down. So DEBARMENT IS IMPORTANT AND NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

The MTA’s rule, though… does not make any sense. It shouldn’t be totally automatic. It should be “If the contractor is found to have been using change orders to increase the price… if the contractor has been found to have deliberately underbid in order to demand change orders… if the contractor is found to be failing to deploy workers to the site on schedule…” etc., with a quasi-judicial hearing for debarment. A flat “if you go over budget or timeline you’re out” is too indiscriminate.

Reply
Nathanael December 6, 2019 - 4:20 am

TLDR:

Debarment is absolutely essential for price control. Proven in Boston.

Debarment should not be automatic based merely on delays or cost overruns, but should be based on the MTA finding during auditing that the contractor has been behaving in a corrupt or irresponsible manner. For instance, the contractor who delivered a non-waterproof South Ferry station should absolutely have been debarred.

Reply
Nathanael December 6, 2019 - 4:26 am

So, my preferred outcome would be for the debarment process to continue, but for the panel to be given discretion to consider good-faith defenses. But situations like South Ferry where the contractor just plain built a leaky station and it had to be rebuilt — those should result in debarment. (So, shoddy workmanship should be grounds for debarment in addition to the over-schedule, over-budget grounds.)

Reply
Tom December 13, 2019 - 1:26 pm

Or perhaps the MTA/Designers designed a poor waterproof shed. Why should the contractor be on the hook for building and install what the MTA asked for?

Reply
Nathanael December 16, 2019 - 8:31 pm

A responsible contractor would not build a design with waterproofing problems, and would take responsibility for the waterproofing even if it wasn’t specified in the design.

Period.

The South Ferry contractors should have been debarred.

That said, again, the NY debarment rule is completely out of line with normal debarment rules — just going over budget or schedule is not enough to cause debarment in most states.

In most states you get debarred for blatantly irresponsible behavior, for not being a “responsible contractor”, not merely for lateness or cost issues. I’ve gone through the records of some smaller transit agencies, and watched them award contracts to the third-lowest bidder because the lowest two were disqualified, deemed to not be responsible based on their track records of not doing their jobs or extorting money; that’s normal. The MTA regulation, by contrast, is too draconian.

Reply
AMH December 20, 2019 - 4:24 pm

Thanks for taking us through this. I’ve been wondering what “debarment” is all about.

I’ve long been concerned about bad contractors screwing the MTA, the agency then writing increasingly punitive contracts to forestall the next screwover, which then leads to a shrinking pool of bidders, thus increasing costs. Based on the comments here, it sounds like the problem is not debarment but a heavy-handed approach akin to mandatory minimum prison sentences removing judicial discretion.

Reply
Nathanael December 25, 2019 - 1:52 am

That is my assessment, yes. Good analogy.

Reply

Leave a Comment