MILWAUKEE CONTRACTOR, BROTHER OVERBILLED DOT BY $260,000, STATE SAYS ; THE STATE WANTS ABOUT $200,000 BACK FROM JOHN BOWLES, A FIGURE IN THE GEORGE CASE, AND HIS BROTHER, RICHARD.
Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin State Journal, November 13, 2004

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MILWAUKEE CONTRACTOR, BROTHER OVERBILLED DOT BY $260,000, STATE SAYS ; THE STATE WANTS ABOUT $200,000 BACK FROM JOHN BOWLES, A FIGURE IN THE GEORGE CASE, AND HIS BROTHER, RICHARD.
Byline: Dee J. Hall Wisconsin State Journal/Associated Press, November 13, 2004

The state Department of Transportation says Milwaukee builder John P. Bowles and his brother, Richard, overbilled the state by $260,000 for contracts in which the Bowleses were paid to help minority businesses.

Auditors for the DOT said the overbilling occurred in a series of contracts worth $3 million over the past seven years awarded to Milwaukee First, owned by John Bowles, and Progressive Training Consultants, owned by Richard Bowles. The agency canceled the contract with Progressive Training in February and refused to pay its final $60,000 invoice, bringing the total amount now due to about $200,000, said Jim Thiel, chief legal counsel for the transportation agency.
The allegations by the transportation department are the latest to dog John Bowles, who was a central figure in the corruption scandal involving former Sen. Gary George.

Among the expenses being questioned by the DOT is $44,000 billed to the state for work purportedly done by a Progressive Training employee in 2002 and 2003, but there's no evidence the company ever paid the employee, Thiel said. The audit also found the Bowles brothers' companies billed the state for travel but failed to provide documentation of travel expenses.

Richard Bowles, who now lives in Phoenix, said Thursday he believes he doesn't owe the state the remaining $66,675 it claims. A message left at Central City Construction in Milwaukee, which John Bowles owns, wasn't returned. The DOT is seeking $129,631 from John Bowles.

"You can just say we do not recognize, we do not agree (with the audit)," Richard Bowles said, declining to discuss specifics. "It is invalid, inaccurate, unfair. I'm fighting it."

Thiel said the state probably lost much more than $260,000, but because of the lack of paperwork, auditors decided not to contest many of the questioned charges.

"Every time they (auditors) couldn't resolve that it (charge) was flat wrong ... they resolved doubts in favor" of the contractors, Thiel said.

John Bowles continues to earn $180 an hour from the Milwaukee School District as part of a $3.3 million contract with the district to help manage construction projects built under the district's $114 million Neighborhood Schools Initiative program. District facilities director Rick Moore said Bowles works closely with school employees and his billings to date appear "reasonable." That contract ends in August, he said.

In a performance audit released earlier this year, the DOT concluded that much of the work done by Progressive Training and Milwaukee First was overpriced and of "questionable" value. The performance audit also said it was difficult to tell what work had been done by the "ever-changing group of entities controlled by the Bowles family," including brothers John and Richard, their sister, Susan Weston of Matteson, Ill., and John Bowles' wife, Jacqueline Moore Bowles.

That review also concluded it was impossible to tell whether the main goal of the contracts was reached: To increase the number of minority- and female-owned businesses or their ability to compete for state business.

Bowles was a key figure in the case involving former Sen. George, who was sentenced in August to a four-year term in a federal prison in Duluth, Minn., for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks and for having his legislative staff work on private business.

As part of the case, Bowles received immunity from prosecution for his testimony that he paid $120,000 to the Milwaukee Democrat to get undisclosed state business. Among the charges was that one of George's legislative aides rigged the bidding process for the $6.2 million public-private Milwaukee Police Athletic League (MPAL) building to ensure that Bowles got the contract at the time George was head of the MPAL's building committee.

The state Department of Administration also has been trying since February to collect $260,000 from John Bowles for work that officials say was never done on the Police Athletic League building. The DOA said Bowles' company, Central City Construction, failed to install energy-savings devices in the activity center that were paid for with a $774,000 state grant.

The DOA's Dan Schoof said the agency still hasn't been paid and is exploring possible criminal or civil actions to get the money back. In addition, the DOA hopes to recoup some of its losses from the $613,000 in restitution George was ordered to pay as part of his sentence, said Schoof, administrator of the Division of Energy.

Thiel said the DOT also plans to take additional steps in the next few days to collect the money and possibly make it more difficult for the Bowleses and their companies to compete for publicly funded projects in the future. But that wouldn't affect any existing contracts, Thiel said.

(Copyright (c) Madison Newspapers, Inc. 2004)