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May 8, 2008 8:17 pm US/Eastern
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Miami Dade: Wackenhut Overbilled Millions
Miami Dade County Has Given Wachenhut 90 Days To Respond
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Miami Dade officials are demanding answers after an audit found that a company they contracted with for security services overbilled the county for millions of dollars.
Some of the public places the company provides security for include Metrorail and Metromover. After a three year investigation, County spokeswoman Vicki Mallette said an audit found the Wackenhut Corp. overbilled the county more than $2 million a year for work that security guards never performed.
"We are prepared to cancel all contracts with the Wackenhut Corportation and demand all the money that is owed to us," County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.
According to Mallette, Wackenhut will have 90 days to respond to the county's audit and repay more than $6.2 million is services that were never performed.
But some say the figure owed to the county is much more.
"Based on our look at the Metrorail and the Juvenile Assessment Center together, we believe that the total figure is about $4 million a year, times seven years, or $28 million," said Mark Veith.
Veith is the lawyer representing the insiders at Wackenhut who acted as whistleblowers in the case. He also believes security was compromised in certain places because of this.
Wackenhut Corp. has been the exclusive security contractor for the county since 1989. Their last no bid extension to provide transit security would have expired next November.
Wackenhut issued the following statement in response to our story: "It has been Wackenhut's position, from the inception of the audit to take full responsibility and to reimburse the county for any substantiated billing errors. Wackenhut, however, objects to paying an artificially inflated amount."
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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