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Tiffany Couch.
You can ask questions. You can’t always get answers.
Tiffany Couch, a forensic accountant and founder of the Acuity Group, was hired by David Madore to help decipher the deluge of documents provided under the Freedom of Information act in regards to the Columbia River Crossing Light Rail project. She shared her findings at Saturday’s Bridging the Gaps event.
“You’ve given us a lot of data, but you haven’t given us any information,” Couch said she told the Washington Department of Transportation.
Her presentation during the Bridging the Gaps event noted that she cannot connect $108 million with actual invoices or vouchers, $15 million didn’t have a vendor name, and $38 million didn’t have a code. Couch told the audience she asked the state three times for this information but it was never provided.
Citizens let loose angry hoots, the biggest audience response of the day, at how the bridge process was proceeding, especially when Couch noted that the state was in escrow on property before the bridge design had even been decided and before the placement of the bridge confirmed.
The biggest concern Couch expressed dealt with David Evans and Associates. Publicly David Evans and Associations claim receipt of $28 million, but according to documents provided by the state the figure swells to $77 million. When she asked the state to provide a copy of the contract with David Evans and Associates she was told it would be very difficult.
“That is a red flag,” she said.
Couch asked why legislators have not provided accountability. “Let’s just stop the bleeding. It’s embarrassing and it’s not something we can feel good about, but let’s say we’ve made a $103 million mistake – we haven’t made a $10 billion* mistake yet.”
Tiffany Couch provided her contact information, tcouch@acuityforensics.com so that anyone with information helpful to the investigation can contact her. Anonymous email is fine.
The above report is a summary of Couch’s presentation at the “Bridging the Gaps” event, which was organized by David Madore.
* The well-documented cost to taxpayers, if the CRC stays on budget, is $10 billion. This was established by the Cortright Report (PDF) which used data from an independent review panel hired by the governors of Washington and Oregon. (View the panel’s final report.)
See our continuing coverage of the Columbia River Crossing Light Rail project.
Do you have information to share on the CRC? To respond anonymously call 260-816-1426. To allow your comments to be used on COUV.COM call 260-816-1429.
I went to this event and planned on staying a short while, maybe taking in a speaker or two. I found myself staying the whole entire time, due to the information the speakers communicated to the audience. I was amazed at the information I was hearing. I became very uncomfortable with the fact that elected government officials are wrecklessly spending your hard earned money, without any accountability. Although Tiffany Couch did not have a lot of detailed numbers to share, that fact that she had asked for the numbers and they did not or could not provide her with that documentation is very scary. The fact that your so called politicians, who are suppose to be for the people, don’t seem to be listening to the people of Clark County. They appear to be going forward with their own agenda, regardless of what the people want, and trying to push this CRC project, (a new I-5 Bridge with Light Rail).. The fact that there will be the same amount of lanes and that it will cost this ungodly amount and they expect for you to pay for it by any means necessary, doesn’t sit well with me and it shouldn’t with you. If you haven’t already listened to some of the videos on couv.com, I would recommend you listen to the one with Lars Larsen drilling the mayor of Vancouver, as to why they are forcing this project down the throats of the people of Clark County without a vote, when they have already voted it down twice already. The video of the unruly commissioner at one of their meetings and the video featuring the helicopter, where the cost of this fiasco is clearly communicated to you and you’re presented with a viable alternative, are a must see. I hate to think that I’m the only one out there ignorant of what is going on right under our very noses.
There is no doubt abuses abound, as does the arrogance of local officials and even the Columbian. A co-chair of the bloated, corrupt CRC as “first citizen”? The group who sponsors that joke should be forced to rename it to “(name)’s Choice For A First Citizen.” Calling it Vancouver’s FC gives it a false credibility it neither has nor deserves. It wouldn’t be so bad if the choices weren’t, but Pollard and Degenriken (sp)?
Give me a break.
Study the history of transportation. Government at the City, County, State and Federal level all found it necessary to take over transportation design and inspection because of the poor quality and high cost of private sector transportation construction. Now corporate lobbyists have convinced the public and legislators to take the work from local underpaid non-profit public servants, and give it to out-of-state, highly overpaid consulting firms that take huge profit margins.
Yes, the fox is guarding the hen house – are you really surprised the golden eggs are disappearing? Designing the work that needs to be done and seeing that it is done properly should not be done by the same group that profits from the work… It will cost taxpayers billions before history repeats itself and the pendulum swings back away from the profiteers.
Tiffany Couch’s presentation was a lighting rod for the audience. Glad we had the opportunity to report on it.
[...] project since first bringing revelations about the CRC’s poor accounting practices during the first Bridging the Gaps conference in [...]