Prosecutors Clear Firm of Fraud in Construction Billing for Civic Arts Plaza : Thousand Oaks: Company that oversaw the project charged city for work never done, but no wrongdoing is proven, investigation concludes.

Local and federal prosecutors have cleared the firm that oversaw construction of the new $64-million Civic Arts Plaza of fraudulently overbilling the city of Thousand Oaks, officials announced Thursday.

Ending a two-year investigation of more than two dozen contracts, prosecutors concluded that Lehrer McGovern Bovis Inc. billed Thousand Oaks nearly $84,000 and 23 other clients about $111,000 for work never done--amounts the company has repaid.

But no criminal charges will be filed because prosecutors cannot prove the overbilling. Nor were they convinced that the questionable bills were submitted intentionally, said John Geb, chief deputy district attorney in Ventura County.

“The questioned billings came down to such a small percentage of the contracts that they would not normally indicate fraud,” Geb said. “We basically had individuals’ allegations of fraud, but not enough substantial evidence to really prove that it existed.”

The U. S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles has also declined to file charges against Lehrer McGovern Bovis, an international construction management firm that is the nation’s second largest.

A spokeswoman for the New York-based firm, which managed such projects as EuroDisney in Paris and renovation of the Statue of Liberty, said the firm did nothing wrong.

“We did not overbill any clients,” spokeswoman Shari L. Davis said.

Lehrer McGovern Bovis agreed to repay only $195,000 from contracts worth about $400 million, Davis noted. Only a handful of worker time cards were challenged by FBI and district attorney’s investigators out of thousands submitted, she said.

Time-card changes were made in ink, so they would be easily detected, and “any changes made were proper,” she said.

“It was LMB’s position to cooperate fully with the government,” she said. “When the government determined that certain money should be remitted, it was our decision not to challenge their findings.” Any question of overpayment was resolved in the favor of the firm’s clients, she said.

About $84,000 of the $195,000 repaid went to Thousand Oaks. That compares to $4.8 million the city has paid Lehrer McGovern Bovis since 1989 to design the new civic and arts center, and to oversee its construction.

City officials said Thursday they are pleased the inquiry is over and think they got their money’s worth from the management firm.

“We are satisfied,” Mayor Jaime Zukowski said. “It is judged by staff that we were under budget and on time.” The firm is now overseeing a $1.2-million reconstruction of the city’s quake-damaged library because it performed so well on the Civic Arts Plaza, City Manager Grant Brimhall said.

“In my view, they did an outstanding job of taking the project from its commencement to its completion,” Brimhall said. For no extra pay, the firm is working with arts plaza subcontractors to make sure final arts plaza touch-ups are completed, he said.

Local and federal authorities launched a broad investigation into possible double-billing by Lehrer McGovern Bovis in 1993, after investigators were tipped that the firm systematically billed two clients at a time for the same work.

In the end, no double-billing was found, Geb said. But prosecutors say a few time cards were changed so work on some projects were charged to others.

The time cards of eight employees who charged Thousand Oaks for their services were altered, Geb said.

“There were indications that an employee completed his time card for one project and, unknown to the employee, a change was made to his time card reflecting a different project,” Geb said.

About $70,000 of the $84,000 in questionable payments were made to one employee, who worked in Downtown Los Angeles, Geb said. “He claimed he was ordered by the company to bill the Civic Arts Plaza for his time and he didn’t work there,” Geb said. “The company said their records show that he did work on that project.”

Prosecutors were unable to determine who was telling the truth, Geb said.