Unfortunately, Virginia officials, including Governor Kaine, are ignoring a 2002 US Government Accountability Office report highly critical of MWAA’s secretive contracting practices and cost overruns.  GAO questioned “whether the Authority obtained the best value in the marketplace for the goods and services that the Authority acquired through contracts.” 

Of $408 million in contracts examined by GAO, MWAA failed to obtain open competition for 15 of 35 contracts.  GAO said because MWAA fails to apply “generally recognized principles underlying the concept of full and open competition,” this “could convey an appearance of favoritism in its contracting decisions.”

GAO’s review was severely limited because MWAA “did not have a centralized database of its concession contracts or documented procedures for awarding these contracts.” 

Also, since MWAA has refused to even comment on the GAO’s corrective procurement suggestions, GAO said MWAA would be reluctant on its own to correct the procurement problems: “This is particularly troublesome given that the Authority recently embarked upon a multibillion- dollar construction program at Dulles.”  And this was before the multibillion dollar VDOT-MWAA memo signed March 24.

How can this happen?   MWAA is a creation of Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, and the federal government.  Its 13 member appointed board of directors (only five live in Virginia) do not get paid.  The MWAA Board includes Virginia and DC real estate developers who will thread the METRO subway through areas ripe for development opportunities.

The Washington Post describes the ambiance and operation of a recent MWAA Board meeting as: “Smartly clad members and their staff members move quickly and efficiently through their agendas with a lot of deference and little disagreement crossing the table.”  Running the 1200 employee Airport Authority requires oversight and accountability, not necessarily “little disagreement.” 

Will this unelected MWAA Board feel the pain of Northern Virginia commuters who will be paying increased tolls to use the Dulles Toll Road?  The Virginia Board members can only be removed “for cause,” which does not include toll increases or lax oversight of cost overruns. Will Dulles Toll Road customers end up paying for more costly non-competitive contracts issued under GAO’s cloud of criticism?

Will the public be informed, or kept in the dark about contracts for the MWAA Metrorail to Dulles?  MWAA says it is not subject to Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act and MWAA excludes cost estimates and bidding records from public disclosure requests even after contracts have been awarded.  Other documents may be disclosed at the discretion of the office holding the records.  Denials for documents may be appealed to a Business Administration Committee, which makes final decisions.  Although federal and Virginia FOI laws allow court challenges for denied documents, MWAA is exempted. I do not believe this is government in the best interests of citizens.