As the rebuilding continues two years after September 11, 2001, CPA firm wins a $700,000 contract to assist in the recovery efforts
12-9-03
Originally published in Blackenterprise.com
By Dahna M. Chandler

It's been more than two years since that dreadful day-September 11, 2001-that terrorist attacks killed thousands, put a hole in the Pentagon, and leveled the Twin Towers. As the nation continues to mourn, the Lower Manhattan Transit Recovery Project, funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is challenged with rebuilding the transit infrastructure damaged during the attack. But what role are black firms playing in the overall rebuilding of Lower Manhattan?

According to Sara Banda, Communications Manager for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, created to help plan and coordinate the rebuilding and revitalization of Lower Manhattan, "The LMDC has established a goal that 20% of our expenditures go to minority- and women-owned businesses." While the FTA was unable to provide a specific racial breakdown of contracts awarded by them to minority- and women-owned business enterprises, Banda says, "Each week the LMDC project manager in charge of MWBE outreach sends emails and faxes to certified MWBEs and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises with lists of procurement opportunities at the agencies involved in the rebuilding." a Philadelphia-based minority- and veteran-owned consulting and CPA firm, is one company that was recently awarded a $700,000 contract by the FTA to provide financial management oversight of transit rebuilding contractors for the LMRP.

According to CPA and firm principal, Charles Holmes, who is responsible for the project, the 50-person firm, which began working with the FTA in 1991, "is slated to provide its financial management oversight [for New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (NY MTA) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ)] through 2004, but may provide ongoing assistance for several years beyond that, through completion of the project," he says. The NY MTA and PANYNJ, which received most of the $4.5 billion allocated to the LMRP, are the first two grantees of the city's transit infrastructure recovery initiative (A $2.85 billion grant for 3 transit sites was announced December 4). The entire $21 billion project, including the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, will span across 10 years.

principals agree their unusual business model for a firm of their size, combining financial management oversight and engineering expertise, garnered them this high-profile opportunity. "We were chosen for our solid performance, track record and specialized knowledge of transit systems as well as accounting systems," says engineer and consultancy principal, Denise Bailey who holds a B.S. in Commerce & Engineering from Drexel University.

A source at the FTA confirmed that it chose MILLCO for the project based on its experience with the agency and its national reputation as a provider of services in this practice area.

A CPA who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Temple University in 1975 and worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers for nine years prior to launching the firm, Navy veteran and founder is currently involved in the assessment of light rail projects at the Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston and Tren Urbano in Puerto Rico.

In addition to doing financial management oversight on transit projects nationwide, the consultancy provides transit security assessments to small- to large-sized transit systems that request the service. The firm teaches the only national courses for the FTA on financial management oversight for contractors and also teaches a course for the National Transit Institute on federally funded capital projects and compliance by businesses with regulations under the federal disadvantaged business enterprise program. The consultancy has written a number of reports on transit safety for the FTA covering areas from crime to fatigue management for transit operators, including a Security Perception Study it completed prior to September 2001.