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As required by law, we report annually on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) most significant challenges to meeting its mission. We considered several criteria in identifying DOT’s top management challenges for fiscal year 2019, including their impact on safety, documented vulnerabilities, large dollar implications, and the ability of the Department to effect change.

 

We identified the following top management challenge areas for fiscal year 2019:

In accordance with the Government Corporation Control Act of 1945, we audited the financial statements of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC), a U.S. Government Corporation, as of and for the years ended September 30, 2018, and September 30, 2017.

 

On November 6, 2018, after a 7-day trial in U.S. District Court, Syracuse, New York, Nathaniel P. Lorenz was found guilty by a jury on nine counts of mail and wire fraud charges. Lorenz, owner of ACME Powerwashing, Inc. (ACME), was charged by indictment in January 2018.

The evidence at trial established that Lorenz, a former police officer and sheriff’s deputy, submitted fraudulent invoices to NYSDOT to conceal that he had not bought the materials he needed to fulfill his contracts.

 

On November 2, 2018, Dandrow Painting, Inc. (Dandrow), Plattsburgh, New York, entered into a civil settlement agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York. Dandrow agreed to pay $350,000 to resolve allegations of improper billing on federally funded bridge cleaning and sealing projects.

 

On November 1, 2018, Kiewit Constructors, Inc. (Kiewit), a New Jersey-based construction company, entered into a civil settlement agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey. Kiewit agreed to pay $1.87 million to resolve allegations that it improperly reported Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) participation on a federally funded construction project.

 

On November 1, 2018, a five-count indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court, Boston, Massachusetts, charging Yat Kuen Chan and Le Wen Wu with conspiracy and bribery. According to the indictment, the two individuals played a role in a scheme to bribe a safety investigator at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). On the same day, DOT-OIG and FBI agents arrested Wu, the owner and sole corporate officer of L&W Travel Inc. (L&W), a passenger bus charter company purportedly located in Boston.