Posted on 02/18/2022 6:39:18 AM PST by george76
Denver’s elected auditor slammed DIA’s process for selecting operators for its restaurant, bar, retail and passenger service locations..
Denver International Airport’s process for selecting operators for its restaurant, bar, retail and passenger service locations isn’t fair and the incentive program the airport offers concessionaires should be ended, the city auditor says.
In a report released Thursday, Denver’s elected auditor Tim O’Brien said DIA’s process of awarding concession contracts may be in violation of an executive order mandating most city contracts be subject to a competitive bidding process. The airport could be missing out on revenue by failing to select the best contractors for its opportunities, the audit found.
“They should have grabbed hold of this a long time ago,” O’Brien said in a news release accompanying the report. “Denver’s airport is one of the busiest in the country. With millions of people traveling through, these concessions contracts are highly lucrative. Businesses don’t need additional incentives to want to operate there.”
O’Brien and his staff found that the airport allows some concessionaires to bypass competitive bid processes. DIA’s “Premium Concessions Program” was designed to provide incentives to concessionaires airport officials believe provide value to the airport, per the audit report. But the airport pays an outside firm $500,000 a year to run the incentive program and has never evaluated if it is truly beneficial.
There are also multiple elements of the airport’s contracting operation that are unfair including allowing concessionaries on expired contracts to “hold over” and maintain their spaces. As of August, 40% of active concessions contracts at DIA were holdovers dating back to at least the end of 2019, according to Thursday’s news release. The average length of time the contracts had been expired was more than 5 and a half years with some going back a dozen years.
The airport’s practice of destroying score sheets that measure competitive bidders’ fits for concession opportunities also makes the process opaque and raises further questions about fairness, the auditor’s report says. The process was also audited in 2014 and it was recommended at that time that airport officials stop destroying the sheets.
The airport’s concessions bidding process was at the center of a lawsuit in 2018. That suit alleged, in part, that DIA officials destroyed scoring sheets that showed a contract for four food and beverage locations was given to a lower scoring bidder. The case was dismissed but refiled in 2019 with additional allegations that the FBI was investigating the bid-rigging allegations. That case is still pending in Denver District Court, according to attorney Stephen Long.
The auditor’s office has provided a list of recommendations for DIA to address the problems it found with the concession contracting process. Ending the incentive program tops the list. The other recommendations include performing a cost-benefit analysis, updating the airport’s concessions master plan, reviewing holdover contracts and updating policies around record keeping. Specifically, the airport should keep scorecards from concessionaires bidding for competitive contracts for seven years, the auditor’s office recommends.
“I am concerned with how these problems were allowed to go on for so long,” O’Brien said in his news release. “But I do believe airport officials are receptive to making the necessary changes going forward. I look forward to seeing their progress when we follow up.”
DIA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday afternoon.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
in violation of an executive order
Didn’t that airport get rid of CNN from their TVs? At least that was a good step forward if they did so.
The auditor’s office has provided a list of recommendations for DIA to address the problems it found with the concession contracting process. Ending the incentive program tops the list. The other recommendations include performing a cost-benefit analysis, updating the airport’s concessions master plan, reviewing holdover contracts and updating policies around record keeping. Specifically, the airport should keep scorecards from concessionaires bidding for competitive contracts for seven years, the auditor’s office recommends.
unfair including allowing concessionaries on expired contracts to “hold over” and maintain their spaces. As of August, 40% of active concessions contracts at DIA were holdovers dating back to at least the end of 2019,
Nepotism at it’s finest.
Follow the money trail.
The ghost of Federico Peña lives on.
Nobody watches tvs in airports anymore.
They’re all focused on “small screens”.
Denver International Airport pays fired contractor $128 million for Great Hall debacle and that’s just the first installment..
Parting is such expensive sorrow.
That’s right.
The CNN at airports was never the same as home cable or sat CNN. The whole of CNN Airport no longer exists.
No bid is generally a negative indicator for municipal purchases, but in Socialist Left Woke areas like Denver, it indicates absolute complete corruption and Marxist Ownership of all Politicians, Government Employees, including Judiciary, and most Media.
In the meantime, maybe they could take down all the metal “paper airplanes” hung up all over the place. And the cheesy, “She’ll be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain” music on the shuttles. One of the best USO facilities out there, though.
DIA was, is and always will be known to stand for Democrats in Action.
i.e.; Did you ever wonder why Pena Blvd suddenly takes a 90 degree turn out there in the middle of the prairie?
The real answer is, the “right” people did not own the land.
Kicks backs all around ?
Do they still have the racist artwork showing children of the world in danger from gas mask wearing white people? That was Wellington Webb’s contribution.
DIA moved to terminate the contract after the revelation that bad concrete is laced throughout the terminal. The termination also followed big cost disagreements with the consortium, which claimed the project would cost $1 billion — not $650 million, the agreed-upon figure.
this is one of many kerfuffles. Actually it is a game of marbles and there are only so many on the ground. Unlike fed projects.
“The ghost of Federico Peña lives on.”
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This airport has been the poster child for cash cows, kickbacks, graft, and political favors since the beginning. Of course, it contained a bit of racist overtones, too. Old Stapleton Airport made Denver one of the handiest cities to visit. This new one placed in the snow belt 30 miles east is a joke . . . a bad joke.
It's the Democrat way
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